


A collection of my Tumblr FMA meta posts

by Zetalial



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Character Analysis, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Essays, Gen, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:17:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 23,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zetalial/pseuds/Zetalial
Summary: This isn't a story, it's just various somewhat lengthy analysis posts centred around the Fullmetal alchemist anime. Posted here for convenience as I don't trust that they'll stay safe on tumblr. Usually they focus on character arcs or themes, sometimes specific to a single episode. Rife with overreading into things.





	1. FMA 03: Theme of Mothers

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, each chapter will be a single essay and they're originally posted on my tumblr. I've been really into FMA lately an all of these posts were made within the past year. That site is infuriating in regards to any form of archiving in an organised way so I thought it'd just be easier if I posted them all on here. Plus comments will be so much more accessible than reblogs. Feel free to comment on anything.
> 
> The majority of these are about the original anime series, which I absolutely love. I'm not nearly so familiar with Brotherhood (though I've watched it as well) or the manga and I'm not so interested in talking about them unless it's to make comparisons between series. Something I actually haven't done all that much of because I've been hesitant to be too critical of it.

I really like how this show explores themes of motherhood. What's interesting is the surprisingly wide range of different types of mothers and motherly characters we see. Especially given how the story largely focuses on two boys. And yet it's also rather fitting - Edward and Alphonse loved their mother and her death has a huge impact on them. Their story starts with their attempt to bring her back.

Episode 3 is aptly titled Mother and it's centred around the Elric family. Trisha Elric is a lovely person, taking care of the two boys alone because her husband has left. We see her through their eyes as both caring and encouraging. She tries to soothe their worries about their father's absence, and provides comfort when things go wrong for them. She also lets them study alchemy, really encouraging them. Though she does have worries of her own, she largely keeps them to herself, not wanting them to worry about her. Trisha clearly misses her husband and she's secretly very ill but she never lets her fears show to her sons and hides her illness from them. In Ed and Al's mind she's perfect and she represents their happy childhood, yet it cannot last. What Trisha really represents is a dead mother and we keenly feel the loss staring with the emotional death scene and the broken boys who do not know how to move on. They can never get back what they’ve lost.

…

Lack of any maternal figures will become a theme for the Elrics remaining childhood. The brothers travel to Central and we meet Nina, whose mother is also dead. She feels lonely in a big house with no other family save for her dad and they immediately connect with her. Meanwhile Edward and Alphonse are trying to join the cold and impersonal military with Ed especially trying to be an adult, putting aside his childhood.

We do also meet Gracia (and Hughes) however. She is a great example of a mother (and family in general). Ed, Al and Nina even get to watch her give birth. They’re still kids so they panic while Gracia is very patient and gracious with them, and she gives birth to Elysia. Ed is entirely sincere as he says mothers are amazing, more incredible than alchemists. Family is a difficult topic for Edward as he so dearly wants to have his family whole again and yet all his efforts have only lead to him nearly losing his brother as well. The next episode showcases his continued trauma very well in a very brief scene:

Here’s a little boy crying over his dead mother’s corpse. (Thank you Hughes for taking Ed with you to this gruesome scene, it’s just what he needed…) Upon seeing the mangled body, Ed gets a traumatic flashback to his mother and also the failed transmutation attempt.

Ed's now part of the military and he soon witnesses another traumatic event in the form of Nina's fate. It really effects him and he needs some comfort. But the military is far too cold to be caring and nurturing. After Nina’s death, Roy chooses to be harsh and cold and blunt, telling Ed to move on and deal with it. (Roy really fails to demonstrate that he does care about them). There really aren't any motherly figures in the military. Certainly not Riza and Roy who both truly care and yet are very definitely soldiers. Gracia and Hughes are the only exceptions. Even in their travels, they're inevitably aligned to the military now. Like Ed and Al, the Tringham brother have no parents, Psyren is a fake who pretends to play motherly figures for her own selfish ends.

But then we're introduced to Maria Ross! Unlike other soldiers, she doesn’t see Ed as a powerful prodigy, she’s sees him and Al as children caught up in a mess that’s far too big for them. She takes her duty of protecting them very seriously and is able to help Ed through his despair upon finding out the secrets of the philosopher’s stone. It’s clear she goes above and beyond her job for them, for instance arguing with both Ed and Hughes about getting the boys more protection – she’s doing her best to take care of them. Ed is initially very frustrated but when he really needs it, she's there providing support and encouragement.

Hughes talks to Maria about the brothers; how these kids may be young but they have the State’s future in their hands. He's basically advising her on how to be caring without alienating them entirely. As the Elrics are too stubborn to give up on their goals, he recommends protecting them as best as they can while still enabling them. Maria takes this message to heart. She rescues Ed in the Lab 5, at great personal risk. (Edward is out of control due to absorbing alchemical energy from the red stones and she calms him down with a hug.) It’s easy to miss but Ed actually mutters ‘mom?’ before he blacks out. It might well be the first hug he’s gotten in a long time. 

Now episode 24 tells this story of a pair of Ishvalan brothers whose mother died. The older brother is pretty angry and in denial about, finding it easier to believe she never loved them at all. Then when he’s presented with truth to the contrary, he breaks down crying, realising that she did love them, that she’d wanted to protect them but couldn’t and that she’s dead. It is an interesting parallel with Ed who was also in denial about his mother’s death – not crying at her funeral but coldly declaring that they were going to bring her back. 

Teacher Izumi. She trained Ed and Al after their mother died and she clearly cares deeply for them. She was very much a substitute mother to them. She’s anything but perfect though. Her methods of teaching are harsh, very harsh. She fails to convince them not to go through with human transmutation and they’ve been actively avoiding her for years. They do know she cares about them, but they’re also scared of her. We originally see childbirth as this wonderful thing but with Izumi we see it gone badly.

Izumi desperately wants to be a mother but her only child was stillborn and in her anger and despair, Izumi performs a human transmutation, the price of which are her internal organs. The creature she creates appears to be an abomination so she gives the child to the Gate. 

Upon Wrath’s introduction though, we see her caring, gentle side. But yet again, she decides Wrath is a monster and very nearly tries to kill him again. Wrath is angry and confused and the homunculi find him, offering a new family where he can belong. Most importantly, Wrath finds a replacement mother figure in Sloth. Sloth is of course, the homunculus created by Ed and Al, which is fitting given that Wrath wants to steal Ed’s life. 

Sloth completely rejects the idea of being a mother. Specifically Ed and Al's mother. She’s cold and apathetic. She hates the fact that she’s a homunculus with a false identity thrust upon her. She hates Ed and Al for creating her and wants to kill them to prove once and for all that she is not Trisha Elric. From there she can embrace who she actually is. Sloth was created from Ed’s inability to get over his mother’s death and she helps him to realise that Trisha is indeed gone for good, that Sloth can never be what he may have secretly wished her to be. Ed ultimately defeats her; Sloth demanded nothing less from them.

Rose. When we first meet her she’s just a girl. But when we meet her again she’s got a small child. She didn’t choose to be a mother, but now she is one. Ironically the people of Liore call her the Holy Mother and she became a symbol to them. She’s a strong person, horrifically violated but she moves on anyway, past the travesties inflicted on her. In the end, we see her living with Al and Winry in Risembool, raising her son. It’s a hopeful end because she’s clearly trying her best to be a good mother now despite the child’s origins.

And finally, our main villain, Dante. She had a son long ago and when he died, Envy was created. She’s created other homunculi too and they follow her. She was also once Izumi’s teacher. But she’s a selfish person who manipulates the homunculi into following her whims, and her goal is to be young and beautiful forever, without regard for others. She could’ve been like a mother to the homunculi, with her naming them and taking care of them – but she rejects this role. She frequently reminds the homunculi that they are not human, that they don’t have proper feelings and, yes, she even tells Wrath that homunculi do not have mothers. Envy might be considered her son and he’s an angry hate-filled person who somehow still appears to care about others more than she does. She considers herself above the homunculi and above other mere humans. It is fitting then, that she dies to her own creation, Gluttony, who had lost all ability to care thanks to her. Our main villain quite clearly rejects the role of mother.She is a perversion of the natural order of the world.

——————————–

So there we have it. FMA 03 has good mothers, dead mothers, kids without mothers, motherly figures, people who want to be good mothers, people who are forced into being mothers and people who reject the idea of being mothers. It’s all so very interesting in a story about two brothers who are really only children struggling to grow up and get over the death of their mother. I love all the different variants the show presents us with. None of these characters are perfect people, and pretty much all of them are in some way relate-able.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of the first meta posts I made and I've updated it a little here. It's still one of my favourites and soon I'll post the one on fathers and brothers I made as well.


	2. FMA 03: Theme of fathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I enjoyed talking about mothers in FMA 03, I decided to do a companion piece on fathers. This was the result.

Okay, I thought I’d do a post about Father’s in FMA 03 like I did with Mother’s in [this post](http://zetalial.tumblr.com/post/183319773901/fma-03-mothers) and…

Ha, Ha, Ha. Fathers are terrible in FMA, aren’t they? There’s like one bright spot. I will be speaking mainly about fathers in regards to the Elric brothers.

Regardless…

I’ll start with episode 1. We’re introduced to someone called Father Cornello. Of course, it’s a title to indicate that he’s a holy man rather than seriously meaning a paternal figure. If it is in any way an intentional theme (given he does want to present himself as a caring man who can take care of Liore) well soon enough his true nature as a fraud who’s really interested in power is revealed.

His falseness can be contrasted with Rose who is later given the title Holy Mother – she didn’t seek the title herself and her care for Liore and its people is genuine. Where Cornello makes great speeches full of lies, Rose is mute and yet honest in her intentions. But I digress.

Ed and Al do not have a father. Their father abandoned them at a young age and all they remember of him is his absence. They have positive memories of thei rchildhood but their missing father was this ever-present shadow on their otherwise idyllic lives. Likewise, both of Winry’s parent’s are dead and they grow up without any sort of father figure. I like the phrasing of the dub here. “I wouldn’t say I hate him, I don’t remember him enough.” 

With the death of their mother this morphs into a firmer dislike from Edward (Alphonse still wants to know their absent father). Despite their father’s absence they take after him, learning alchemy from his books including the forbidden stuff. Their attitude can be contrasted with the Tringham brothers in episode 11-12 where their father is dead and they’re learning alchemy in honour of his memory and to be like him. It’s why they’re so motivated to save Xenotime such that they’re convinced to use insidious methods. Ed meanwhile hates to be compared to his absent father.

The one exception to the absent or terrible fathers is, of course, Maes Hughes who seems to genuinely care for the brothers. He helps them for no other reason than that he cares for them. He is great. He throws Edward a little birthday party, sits and talks with him at meals, gives him help and advice, sends Armstrong to tail them as protection. They have a great relationship. 

In the above scene, Hughes decides to tell Ed that Scar was responsible for Nina’s death rather than deciding to keep the information from him. Even when Maria Ross suggests its too dangerous for the Elrics to continue searching for the stone, Hughes continues to enable them while giving them protection as he knows that otherwise the boys would just strike out on their own. Edward in turn opens up to Hughes, deciding to tell him about the homunculi behind Lab 5. Obviously, he is not just fatherly towards the Elrics but dotes on his own daughter and loves his wife. So of course the homunculi kill him.

Hughes great family can be contrasted with Shou Tucker and his daughter. Tucker welcomes the Elrics into his home and soon becomes sort of like a father to them, providing them support and a home while they prepare to join the military. He’s kind and offers them advice where he can, even recommending they stay away from the military. He seems to love his daughter Nina too. But just like with Father Cornello, it’s all a facade. Just as Cornello made chimeras that sounded like real people to maintain his illusion of power and respect, Tucker turns people into chimeras in order to keep hold of his life as a respected State Alchemist.

Tucker turns Nina into a monstrous chimera in some misguided attempt to retain his old lifestyle showing that at his core he is awful and selfish. Just like that, Ed and Al’s replacement home has been destroyed as thoroughly as their initial home. And it was a home for them. That’s partly why the reveal shakes them so much. Their worst fears confirmed in the worst possible way.

I guess they do still have Sig Curtis. I mean, they’ve been avoiding him and Izumi for years but when they are with him its okay. He’s nice and cares for the boys though he’s ultimately a pretty quiet person who tends to follow his wife, Izumi’s lead. Maybe he could be a good father but we never see any moments of the Elrics bonding and looking to him for advice unlike Hughes or Tucker. We never see him show any care towards Wrath in the series either. Mostly he’s just there for Izumi.

I haven’t mentioned Mustang, have I? That’s because he an absolutely terrible father figure as well. He does care for the Elrics but that’s really not enough. Upon seeing an unconscious crippled 11 year old Edward, he… recommends they join the military. Yeah. Become a child soldier and leave what’s left of your childhood behind.

His amazing ability to show he cares continues when he tells a crying Edward to just get over Nina’s horrific death and move on with his life. Upon learning about Liore he decides not to tell Edward in order to protect their innocence – this just ends up backfiring, He also keeps Ed in the dark about Hughes’ death. Edward ends up furious that these were kept secret from him. Seeing Ed is in a bad mood after his fight with Scar and he’s missing his arm while Al’s armour is wrecked, Roy decides to make fun of him in an effort to get a rise out of him. Truly it should come as no surprise that Edward does not trust Mustang. Ed is surprised to learn Roy cares at all when Mustang finally opens up in episode 43. Yeah, Mustang could be an alright friend to the Elrics – they do have a fun, teasing dynamic – but he makes a terrible father to the Elrics. At least until he can learn to open up more about how much he cares about them.

And finally, Hohenheim. He is absent for most of the story. When he finally does show up, he doesn’t offer any excuses for his behaviour, doesn’t really offer them anything at all. When Al is interested in getting to know him, he does spend a bit of time with him, only to leave once more in the middle of night.

Hohenheim is pretty aware of his failings and does attempt to do the right thing in confronting Dante. It goes badly. We do learn that he’s been equally terrible towards Envy, creating the homunculus and then abandoning him to Dante presumably because he saw Envy as a pale imitation of his long dead son. 

At the end of the series, Ed is with Hohenheim and he’s forgiven him, it seems. He’s been pacified with the revelation that Hohenheim did love Trisha and is saddened by her death as well so Ed’s let go of some of his hate that was the result of blaming him for Trisha’s death. They’re an odd pair but Hohenheim is trying to at least give Ed the needed support in the new world. I doubt they’re truly close, it’s more that circumstances have pushed them together. Still we do see him giving Ed some advice and encouragement while letting him go seek out his own answers. So he's always been extremely distant but he is well-intentioned.

And that’s basically all the Fatherly figures in the series barring, like, the innkeeper from Yousewell who was an alright guy, I suppose. And there’s Pride who I guess is a bit of a fatherly figure to his soldiers. Very friendly and personable with that sort of Grandfatherly persona. Yet again, it’s all fake though. He has cultivated this image with a perfect-looking family but he won’t hesitate to strangle his son and start wars. 

Er, maybe Armstrong could be read as fatherly? He is kind to the Elrics, taking care of them and worrying over them. I always struggle with Armstrong, I’ll be honest. 

–

Yeah and that concludes this post. We’ve got absent fathers and people who pretend to be fatherly and people who fail at it. And we’ve got Hughes who is wonderful. And dead.


	3. FMA 03: Theme of Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last part on the theme of family. Brothers.

It should come as no surprise that brotherhood is a strong theme in this series. We meet quite a few pairs of Brothers throughout the series with our main characters being Edward and Alphonse, who’s relationship gets the most depth and development. I would be here all day trying to explore every facet of their relationship though! I’ll just try and briefly explain how their relationship can be compared to other brotherly relationships.

I will start by looking at episode 38 – With the River’s Flow. I appreciate how we see they're ver close and that can still lead to arguments.

  


Ed and Al are, as ever, travelling alone and getting into conflict. These two are both pretty headstrong (though Ed more so than Al) and this episode perfectly captures their relationship. 

They’re a bit stuck in their journey and they lash out at each other. Al’s irritated at Ed’s stubbornness while Ed’s irritated at Al’s inability to express himself. Ed’s determined to go after Scar and the Philosopher’s stone while ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room that is the Homunculi – namely Sloth. Al wants to talk about Sloth but he is having trouble actually confronting Ed about it – he somehow manages to bring up Hohenheim of all people instead. In the end, they succeed only in getting angry at each other and storming off to sulk alone. 

This is far from the only time we see the two arguing, they’re often at odds with each other actually. And no brotherly relationship we see in the story is perfectly smooth either. 

Here’s a pair of Ishvalan Brothers. The younger brother is called Rick and the older brother is called Leo. Like Ed and Al they’re pretty close, possibly due to being orphans who have had a rough life so far and they have had to really rely on each other. At one point, Rick has a PTSD flashback and Leo snaps him out of it, in a way that implies he’s used to it. In episode 24, the two of them are definitely in conflict over longstanding issues about their mother. Leo is angry that Rick cares so much about her as he has stubbornly convinced himself that she never really cared about them. Rick still has faith though. 

Despite their differences in opinion though, Rick and Leo’s bond is still very strong. When Rick gets kidnapped, his brother immediately goes with Scar and Al to help rescue him. He is keeping quiet about a painful memory so that Rick doesn’t have to learn the truth and ironically that’s a huge part of why they’re in conflict. This invites you to contrast it with Ed and Al’s own fight in this episode. Where Al has convinced himself that Ed doesn’t really love him because he’s just a fake and meanwhile Ed has been keeping quiet all this time about his guilt over whether Al blames him for his condition – for the human transmutation. It’s only when they have faith and confide in their worries that both their conflicts are able to be resolved. 

Speaking of Ishvalan Brothers, there’s another pair of them in this series who also struggled to relate to each other.

They are… an interesting pair. Scar’s older brother is dead when the series starts but Scar certainly thinks about him a lot. The two had trouble understanding each other with Scar’s brother being something of a heretic who performed alchemy – human transmutation - and was… a little odd. Nothing like this crowning scene of him crying big tears in the middle of the day in the middle of a war and in front of his brother, while completely naked – right? 

Still, Scar seems to desperately want to understand his brother. Some of his first words in the series is wondering what his brother wanted him to do with his arm. Upon encountering Ed and Al in episode 14, he immediately says that Ed reminds him of his older brother and ends up emphasising with Al. Another conflict the two had was that apparently he had feelings for his brother’s great love – the woman who became Lust. Central to his conversations with the homunculus is his complex feelings about his brother. Some of Scar’s final words are again reflecting on the Elric brothers and their close relationship to each other. He wishes he’d managed a similar relationship with his brother and quietly says “brother, I love you”. 

Beyond their conflicts though, there’s also a theme of sacrifice. 

Scar’s older brother gave up his right arm (and this cost him his life) to save Scar’s life. That’s a pretty clear parallel to Ed giving up his own right arm to save his brother’s life. And later, Scar will give up his brother’s right arm to save Ed’s brother’s life. Yeah. Al really attracts sacrifice, okay? Al even starts developing survivor’s guilt over this. The series actually ends with Ed giving up his life to save his brother (though it only costs him the arm and leg he just got back. And to be stuck in another world…). And then there’s Al sacrificing himself to save his brother’s life. 

Now, Ed and Al are a pair of alchemist brothers, who learned alchemy from their father’s notes. That is strikingly similar to another pair of brothers.

Russell and Fletcher Tringham steal Ed and Al’s identity in order to pose as credible alchemists so they can research and create a Philosopher’s stone. They are skilled alchemists themselves, despite their young ages. Russell is pretty cocky and wants to bring Xenotime to its former glory through the use of alchemy. He’s willing to do some pretty immoral things to achieve this though. 

Fletcher also wants to save Xenotime but he is more conflicted. However, he is scared to speak against his brother and has been reluctantly going along with things. Al emphasises with Fletcher and encourages him to confront his older brother, indirectly revealing some of the guilt Al feels for keeping quiet and going along with the human transmutation. Russell has been ignoring the warning signs, driven to believe he’s good enough to fix things. They’ve wound up on a similar path to the Elrics and the Elrics encourage them to find a new path even as they continue in their search. They see themselves in the Tringhams and warn them against it. 

There’s one other pair of brothers Edward encounters and they remind him of his own brother.

No. 48. A pair of serial killer brothers who were both bonded to a suit of armour. The two of them are very much in sync given how they fight together, trade a bit of banter and are willing to protect each other while Ed is fighting them.

They’re also more literally bonded by past deeds than the other characters on this list. They both have to live as souls bonded to armour and it makes them feel inhuman. Seeing their hate for their current existence motivates Ed into fixing his own brother. It really drives home the horror of Al’s experience, helping to justify the identity crisis Al has while Ed fights the slicer brothers. Of course, Ed is driven to win by recalling his devotion to his brother. It’s quite ironic to see Al losing his faith just as Ed affirms their relationship.

Ed is distraught when the Younger brother chooses to take his own life, no doubt thinking of Al. The older brother understands his brother completely though and tries to be comforting towards Ed though it doesn’t really help much. Mostly this whole experience really shakes Ed up and an episode later, Lust kills the older slicer brother while threatening to do the same to Al.

…

Okay, there’s one other pair I want to bring up though they’re not actually related.

Roy and Hughes have been close friends for a very long time. Hughes even goes to visit Roy to find he’s very nearly performed human transmutation. He challenges Roy on the issue, encouraging him to live and move on. You can contrast this with the pattern of brothers in the series staying silent when they fear their brother is making a mistake. When Roy tells him he wants to be Fuhrer, Hughes is there to say he’ll support him. We don’t learn too much about their history, but its obvious they are very close, seeing each other in their darkest moments. Both of them are also close to the Elric brothers.

A big reason to trust Roy in 03 is because Hughes cares so much about him, it speaks highly of his character to know that someone like Hughes sees good in him even when he's quite harsh before we get to know more about him. Hughes is the only person he reveals his worries and weaknesses to and Hughes really looks out for him. After Hughes is killed, Roy can’t bear to face Hughes’ wife Gracia, feeling some guilt and misery over his death. At Hughes’ grave, the piano version of Bratja/Brothers plays, as Roy mourns his dearest friend’s passing.

This leads into the question of how people deal with loss. There's this scene in episode 15, after Ed and Al have fought scar and Ed questions his pursuit of vengeance for the Ishval war. Al says that if Ed died, he'd have wanted to seek revenge himself. We see how the loss of a brother impacted Scar (though his methods are about far more than revenge) and we also see Roy struggling to deal with Hughes death. 

So, Episode 38: With the River’s Flow, begins with Ed and Al in a fight. Then the two of them go off to sulk alone for a while.

Ed’s angry and muttering about how irritating Al is but then he unthinkingly asks Al to pass the salt as he’s eating. Edward seems to realise that he’s driven Al away and he suddenly misses him. Immediately, he gets up and goes to look for him. The two of them are extremely codependent and can’t stay separated for long. Al, across town, is walking around, muttering about how stubborn Ed is to himself when someone taps him on the back and he immediately says: “Ed, where were you?” only to realise it isn’t his brother.

Ed has a flashback to when the two of them were kids and shows that they were close then too. They got into fights and they would run off but then Ed would come to his senses and go to look for his brother.

Ed doesn’t offer an apology out loud or anything. He just dismisses their fight, showing he’s forgiven his brother and Al smiles and runs after him. In the present, Ed finds Al at the river (which the episode is named for) and dismisses the fight the same way he did when they were kids. That’s very much Ed and Al’s dynamic. 

During Al’s identity crisis, Al runs away and Ed wants to run after him (ready to throw himself off the roof even, because Ed’s always freaking out over his brother.) But Al takes some time to think through things while Ed and Winry spend that episode looking for Al. Upon meeting up again, they quickly make up, heedless of the danger around them. Whatever happens they always forgive and go looking for each other. 

Speaking of Brothers it would remiss of me to neglect to mention one other character.

A homunculus created by Hohenheim in an attempt to bring back his dead son. Envy. He’s essentially Ed and Al’s half-brother. This is only revealed in the final episodes and Envy is a rejection of all the prior brotherly relationships we’ve seen explored throughout the series. Envy hates his family and takes great pleasure in tormenting the Elric brothers. Ed’s so shocked by the reveal that it gives Envy the upperhand, and he takes the opportunity to stab Edward through the chest. He laughs about it in victory. 

Envy is a disaster but you can also see how he came to be the way he is. He’s never been loved by anyone, not his father who rejected and abandoned him and not Dante who uses and manipulates him to serve her needs. Envy does have reasonably decent relations with the other homunculi though – they seem to have bonded a little over shared circumstances. Envy gets on well with Lust and Sloth and at first seemed like a bit of an older brother to Wrath almost. He’s too mean and impatient to have a proper relationship though.

At the gate, Edward warns Envy not to cross through but Envy doesn’t listen and marches away, smiling. Edward’s face is covered in tears, both for Al who he’s losing and perhaps for Envy who could have been a better person were he not so bitter and full of hate. 

–

Envy is an exception to all these different characters throughout the show who have strong familial bonds that they depend on. These bonds are often the only thing they can rely on when they’re hit with life’s tragedies as all these characters have very angsty backstories. No bond is more explored more than Ed and Al’s relationship, so this overview has mostly revolved around them.

Fullmetal Alchemist is the story about two brothers trying to regain what they lost and their relationship is central to the story. Through other characters we can see different aspects of it. The Tringhams, walking a dangerously similar path to them. Scar, who wishes his relationship with his brother could have been like Ed and Al’s. Roy, who is trying to do right and learn to live with the loss of his best friend. Rick and Leo, who are struggling together with each other and other Ishvalan refugees. And Envy, a chilling example of their antithesis. 

Ed and Al’s relationship is very much my favourite part of the series.

It’s why the ending is so tragic.


	4. FMA 03: Ed's character development

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More thoughts on Edward. I find his arc in FMA 03 to be really interesting.

Hey, I am just going to talk a bit about how Edward develops over the course of the series.

Early on we see him getting into trouble and then solving problems and Ed is really confident and happy with big smiles. He takes great joy in outsmarting people or defeating people with his awesome alchemy skills. He gets moody at times – he doesn’t like being part of the military – but he is proud to be the alchemist for the people.

The first glance at him after the timeskip when he’s 15 has him talking to a taxi-driver about his lovely reputation and he’s visibly happy and gloating. (The wind gets taken out of him with a remark about his height though.) Now, he is sensitive to people’s suffering and wants to help others when he can – stuff like Nina still weighs on him. But mostly, he’s doing his own thing and thinks he’s awesome. (See Liore, Yousewell and the fullmetal versus flame episode.)

  
Ed proudly introducing himself.

Al’s a little more humble and caring about others while Ed is less interested in other people’s problems – he generally wants to help only when he begins to care about them or if it’s really about proving himself. (In episode 10, the Phantom Thief, his problem with Clara wasn’t that she was a thief, it was because she was a thief using alchemy. He’s particularly opposed to the misuse of alchemy and actually helps her when he thinks she’s trying to help the town. Then when she’s tricked him, Ed wants to defeat her because she got the better of him and he hates that.) 

Over the series, this arrogant attitude gets deconstructed. It starts with Marcoh, when Ed tracks him down and doesn’t care too much about his story about his Ishval and how the Stones he made were misused. He just wants the stone for his own goals – restoring him and Al – and doesn’t really care too much about the wider world. Then Marcoh gets taken by the military and Ed suddenly feels bad because he realises his actions caused this and he steps in to defend Marcoh from Scar. Complete with a flashback to Nina.

So next, Ed finds out that the Philosopher’s stone is made from human lives and he starts to give up because pursuing their own goals would mean hurting others. He's made to consider that his quest may not be as noble as he'd like and there may not be an easy solution. It’s another huge challenge to his worldview. 

Then Lab 5 happens and he finds out the homunculi have been behind things and they’ve been secretly manipulating him and his brother all this time, leaving a trail to the stone to lure them in. Now Ed can no longer pretend that it’s their own quest independent of anything else. They’ve been controlled all this time and didn’t know it. Tucker is still alive. Barry the chopper is still alive. Ed hates being tricked and outsmarted and he’s really shaken by it all. 

Meanwhile, you’ve got Al interacting with Scar. Originally Scar is just a bad guy to Ed and now they’re learning more about Scar and his sympathetic motivations and it’s not so black and white. Early villains tended to be framed as generically evil but that's not really the truth. 

So Ed finds he’s more connected to the world than he’d like to be. He can’t just be selfishly pursuing his own goals with no care for his effect on the world. He learns about how the homunculi were created with Izumi and then he meets Greed. Greed’s just a bad guy to Ed. Then Ed kills him and Greed reveals he let Al go, that he’s been manipulated all his life and that he’s not such a bad guy. Ed has to deal with the fact that he’s taken a life and he has to try and move on. 

Early episodes had Ed really happy and proud with defeating the bad guy and saving the day. (Nina and Barry the chopper are sort of exceptions but even then the bad guys were so clearly evil and he could at least take some sort of satisfaction from defeating them. Until lab 5…) These episodes show the opposite, Ed feels terrible for what he’s accomplished. There is no satisfaction here. 

So the next couple episodes have some more of his assumptions challenged. His interactions with Ishvalans in episode 36 reveal that he’s been affected by propaganda more than he’d like and he confronts a bit of his own internalised racism (the show doesn’t really delve into the subject but it does touch on it a little.) Ed is starting to rethink his assumptions and his worldview. He makes this nice statement about how you can’t always trust what you’ve been told and you have to come to your own truths about the world. Martel informs him how the Ishval war wasn’t a single inciting incident based on different worldviews but an active insidious campaign by the military to start a war. What he’s been told before has been more lies and military propaganda which he’d never questioned.

Then the truth about Liore is revealed and Ed is now confronted with the fact that his actions didn’t help like he thought. He couldn’t solve their problems. All he did was cause worse problems even though it wasn’t his intention. All he can do is collapse in horror at the graves, realising that he was never the clever hero defeating the bad guy. His actions really had huge devastating consequences outside himself. 

And he also faces Sloth, who he’d been in denial about for ages. Now he accepts that she’s his creation and his responsibility and he can no longer run from her. So he prepares, going to Risembool to get her weakness. 

Lust has been his enemy for a long time and she’s done some terrible things. Yet she offers to work with him against his enemies. She wants his help and I like her line about how if he gives her what she wants and makes her human then they wouldn’t be enemies anymore. It’s like, these characters are more complex than mere bad guys and helping her would be the best move even though she’s never shown any remorse for the things she’s done. There’s no point to antagonising her now. (I’m probably not explaining it that well but I find this scene really powerful.) Meanwhile, Sloth is intent on being their enemy to the end and it’s necessary to go as far as killing her.

Ed’s fight to defeat her is every bit as clever and awesome as any of his earlier schemes and he’s aiming for the ending he got. (Whereas he was shocked by his own actions against Greed.) But there’s no happiness in victory here. Only bitter sadness. He’s beginning to understand the homunculi and that they’re not monsters – they’re tragedies. 

At this point they have the stone and Ed could be trying to get his and his brother’s body back. I think it might well have been possible. Early Ed probably would have tried to do just that. But now Ed’s not thinking of his own goals he’s thinking of the greater world outside of his own dreams. His conversation with Mustang in Episode 48, Goodbye, discusses this. Mustang’s throwing away his dream of becoming Fuhrer to defeat the corrupt Military while Ed goes after the Homunculi’s master who’s been pulling all the strings and starting wars. War is not a far-off thing that doesn’t concern him as he believed in early episodes. 

So we don’t see much of his cocky smile anymore. Ed learns he’s not as clever as he thinks he is and that his enemies aren’t as simple as he once thought and that the world effects him and he effects the world, whether he likes it or not. That’s some of his character development throughout the series. 

We may not get so many big grins but we do still get some nice smiles from him at times. He’s grows more thoughtful about the world and more caring about others. He’s calmer and less arrogant and better at forgiving others for their mistakes, (like he’s able to forgive his father for all the terrible stuff he’s done upon seeing how he’s trying to be better). He’s still restless, and very attached to Al and can’t let go of his principle of equivalency entirely and this leads to his final sacrifice and then continuing researching relentlessly in the new world – he doesn’t become a perfect person or anything. But I adore his character growth 

Ed’s my favourite character in FMA and I absolutely love his character journey in 03. I hope this helps to explain why.


	5. FMA 03: Roy's character arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally titled Roy Mustang - a military man. As you'll see, my focus is how his character is defined by being part of the military. Written for a friend.

I'm going to attempt to describe my thoughts on how Roy is presented in the 03 anime. (Roy’s character is quite a bit different in Brotherhood. A little more heroic and a little less broken and a little more consumed by revenge.)

Roy is part of the military. That is his most significant characteristic. Yes, the military defines him. The military is a pretty messed-up institution in the world of FMA. The country is always at war and it will slowly be revealed that there’s no good justification for it. Wars have been happening because people are selfish and want to obtain the forbidden power of the Philosopher’s stone.

Roy’s arc throughout the story is all about coming to understanding how broken this system he’s dedicated to is even while his life is completely tied up in the military. All his friends and companions are his fellow soldiers and Roy is rarely ever shown wearing anything but his uniform. The military defines his life -he’s been part of it for a long time – and it is hopelessly corrupt. 

The first eye-opener for Roy was the Ishval war. He sees great atrocities committed… and he participates in them, following the orders of his superiors. He’d likely believed all the lies he’d been told about his ‘enemies' and that his actions were for the greater good.

He hates himself for it but Roy is a dutiful soldier in Ishval. (The only exception we see is helping Dr. Marcoh to escape. A reminder that he does want to be a good person who does right by others.) We specifically see him blowing up a young boy with a gun (in a PTSD flashback) and his execution of a pair of (Amestrian) doctors. He confesses to Hughes to killing _a lot_ of people in Ishval. These actions have severely affected him.

For his work, he is rapidly promoted through the military and we meet him as Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame alchemist and hero of Ishval. At first he seems like an arrogant, teasing person with a goofy side around his close subordinates. Towards Ed, he really gets under his skin with his smirking knows-everything attitude.

Secretly, Roy is filled with self-loathing and drinks and even considers killing himself. He makes a promise to himself to fix the military, aided by his closest friend Maes Hughes. Of course, Roy wants to reform the system from the inside and to achieve that he aims to become the Fuhrer – that’s his goal for the series. He feels its the only way he can justify living and making up for his sins. (Also, as he expresses to Winry later, that he wants to be in a position where he’ll never have to follow unjust orders again.)

While he may have done terrible things, he is not a bad person. At least, that’s not how others see him. He has a loyal team surrounding him who want to help him to achieve his goals. Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Falman and, of course, Riza Hawkeye. They all greatly respect him. Riza makes it very clear that she is aware of the things he’s done in Ishval and chooses to follow him anyway. She does not condemn him. Besides them, there’s also Armstrong and Hughes. 

Roy tries his best to be good, to improve the world even as he’s trapped by his own demons. He’s given up his innocence to get into a high-up, influential Military position. It’s not easy for him, we really see his struggles and we’re slowly shown that, yes, the things he has done are awful and he can’t necessarily expect forgiveness. 

Roy is a people person who can be very charming. He goes on lots of dates with girls and has been very good at becoming a rising threat in the military as he works his way up the chain of command. He is seen as power-hungry by many who don’t know him well. (Sheska views him this way for much of the series given his inability to open up to her when she wants to help.) These relationships are fleeting things compared to the trust of his team however. 

That brings us to Edward and Alphonse. Roy’s relationship with them is quite unlike anyone else – they aren’t Military, they’re still (clever, somewhat jaded) children. While Ed does join the Military on Roy’s suggestion, he keeps it at arms length. Edward never wears a uniform and makes it very obvious that he sees joining the military as a means to an end – he’s only after the stone. The Elrics have never experienced war and Roy wishes that he could make it so they never will. To that end, he’s protective of them, keeping them in the dark about Liore and about Hughes’ death. While he’s caring, he has the inability to be very effective about it. He’s a soldier who struggles to relate to the boys.

After the Nina tragedy, and facing a crying, distraught Ed in an alley, Roy is harsh and tells Ed to just get over it and move on. This disconnect resulting from alternating between being overprotective and treating Edward like one of his men is partially why the two have a rather strained relationship throughout the series. (And why I don’t much care for a parental!Roy. It’s not that he doesn’t care but that he doesn’t care successfully.)

Their relationship is further complicated by how they’re both basically using the other for their own goals. Ed only motivation is fixing his brother and he’s joined the military for its resources so he can search for the Philosopher’s stone. Roy is sympathetic, of course, but his discovery of the prodigy Fullmetal alchemist for the military definitely earns him some points in the eyes of the higher ups. Additionally, Ed is reporting to Mustang – he can find all about the Philosopher’s stone through Ed; he knows it is somehow connected to the military as he used an incomplete stone in Ishval. The information that Ed is seeking out is valuable to Mustang. Later, it will be Ed and Al who will tell him that the Fuhrer and his secretary are both Homunculi and that they have been causing wars purely because they have been after the stone this whole time. 

In the first half of the series, Roy is motivated by guilt over his actions in Ishval. He believed he could fix things by gaining power. But things change with the death of his dearest friend Maes Hughes. It’s at that point he begins to realise how deep the corruption in the Military goes. Hughes’ research into the Ishval war led to his death. Working to slowly reform the military from the inside is starting to look more and more like a hopeless dream when it’s hiding so much evil – such as the fifth laboratory and their special ops soldiers they turned into chimeras after they started a war. (The Ishval war, naturally.)

The Fuhrer’s genial demeanour had fooled many soldiers into maybe thinking he might be what he appears to be – a kind grandfatherly sort of man who cares about the military. It’s only a closer look that shows that he’d been constantly throwing the country into pointless wars in order to gather ingredients for the stone and to cause people to lose everything and become desperate enough to seek it out. (Mustang and his team talk about it in episode 44). It is at this point that they are growing aware that the Fuhrer who they have been serving is their true enemy.

In the above scene, Riza describes how Mustang can use his destructive flame alchemy to prevent a riot breaking out. Despite Mustang’s best efforts to be a soldier who can keep the peace and protect others though, he isn’t able to prevent Liore from turning into another Ishval. He wasn’t able to protect his best friend, Hughes. Ishvalans are still being persecuted by the military. He can’t even protect the Elrics from war.

That’s why he ultimately has to give up his dreams. He wanted to become the Fuhrer to fix the military and prevent all the unjust suffering and the deaths of innocent people but his plans of reforming it from the inside are too slow and they aren’t working. Maybe they’d never work if it’s been the Homunculi ultimately pulling the strings this whole time. Whatever the case, he decides he can no longer justify his position as the dutiful soldier. 

He decides instead to assassinate the Fuhrer. Yes, it’s about avenging Hughes but it’s also about justifying his own existence and doing what’s Right. Standing idly by as more wars are started would be selfish in his mind; even his dream to become the Fuhrer would have become selfish. 

He and Edward cross paths once more. Edward is on his way to fight the Homunculi because he cannot stand by either. His goal of fixing himself and his brother is now secondary to stopping evil. Likewise, Mustang’s new motivation is to stop the evil corruption that plagues the country at the source. 

It is only now that the two of them can come to an understanding. Right as both of them go their own separate ways to potentially face death. I like how in the above scene, Mustang initially thinks to give Ed a military salute but then changes his mind and offers him a handshake instead. A nice little symbol showing how they’re a bit closer and also how they're not tied to the military anymore. (Ed goes for a handclap because he’s contrary and it lightens the mood.)

Roy’s loyal men are staging a coup for him, directly waging war against the corrupt military. Meanwhile, he and his closest companion Riza sneak over to the Fuhrer’s home alone. (I like how he’s not in his military uniform in this final fight.)

It is fitting that Roy has to face Pride at the end because he has had to let go of his pride, his dreams, to come here. Ed explicitly states that he’ll never be able to become Fuhrer if he goes through with this. His whole identity as a military man is being thrown away here and he is at peace with the thought. 

The Fuhrer’s last actions involve taking an innocent child down with even as the innocent boy leads to his own defeat. It is not a perfect, bloodless victory.

Interestingly enough, it is Archer who takes out one of Mustang’s eyes. Archer operates as a foil to Mustang, a man who was jealous of Mustang’s prestige from Ishval and wanted Liore to be ‘his’ ishval. Archer is cold but clever; most people can’t stand him but he nevertheless rose to power following Hughes’ death. Yeah, a good man like Hughes gets replaced by a power-hungry snake such as Archer. While Mustang is a military man, he does not enjoy and embrace it as Archer does.

Archer was described as the ideal soldier because he is a man who likes war. His most faithful man was Kimblee (who loves to cause chaos and suffering). It’s a pretty good symbol as to how much Mustang messed up in his relationship with Ed when Edward decides to willingly turn himself over to Archer’s command rather than stick with Roy (who was being controlling). By the end of course, Archer has been turned into a crazed half-machine and he’s killed by Riza, who was defending Roy. 

But in the end, when Roy has finally killed the Fuhrer and finally given up on the military that has so long defined him? When’s he severely injured?

Well, they’ve finally reversed the Ishvalan policy and the finally reforming State is actually helping them to rebuild.

Riza is closer to Roy now that they’re both out of uniform. She’s taking care of him and letting her hair down. They were always very close in the military but there was a wall between them. It seems to have dropped.

Things are still imperfect, Roy acknowledges as much. The world is beautiful for it’s imperfections, he says.

Roy? He’s happy now. 

—-

And that concludes Roy’s arc in the series and some of my thoughts on his character. Like all characters in the show, he’s pretty defined by past tragedies. He’s one of the most complex characters I think, so I tried to keep this pretty focussed. I see him as the main character after Ed and Al so we see a lot of him in the series. His relationships between the various characters is pretty varied and I didn’t want to go into every one in depth but I hope this works as a good overview. 


	6. FMA 03: Alphonse is naive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't take this one too seriously - I call Alphonse an idiot for being overly trusting but I love him really. 
> 
> But seriously Al, don't throw away Sloth's weakness! And stop listening to serial killers!

Hey there! Alphonse is one of my favourite characters in FMA. He’s nice and as much a prodigy as his brother – but when it comes to people, he can be really naive. (Bear in mind that he is really a kid though.)

This is mostly about 03 Alphonse where his trusting nature is both a strength and a flaw. He’s trusting in BH as well, I think, but I don’t think we see him get into as much trouble because of it. (I mean, there was that time when he spent all night in the dark with Pride, who was banging his helmet in a constant methodical pattern the whole time before realising something was wrong.)

Want some examples? Okay! At the start of episode 10, Ed and Al are playing poker and Ed is blatantly cheating. Al doesn’t suspect his devious brother at all until the cards literally fall out of his sleeve.

Apparently he just thought he was being unlucky. 

Later in this episode, even though Clara/Psyren has already lied to them once, he still believes she has good intentions for stealing stuff. He believes her made-up story every single time. Ed only believes her the first time.

Yeah, he’s irritated at his brother for helping to arrest her. Her motive was literally just to generate publicity by stealing! (Gosh, Ed spends so much of that episode eating.)

An episode later, the brother are in Xenotime and Ed is angry that a pair of brothers have stolen their identities and as a result the entire town thinks they’re a pair of liars and threw them out of what was probably the inn.

Unsurprisingly, Ed is angry. Al, meanwhile, doesn’t hold any sort of grudge at all and tries to be nice and befriend the younger brother, Fletcher, while calling his brother a hothead. (Like _Ed’_s reaction is the unreasonable one or something.) This works out for Al as the Tringham’s are not really a bad sort and they start working together. Al also convinces Fletcher to stand up to his brother. 

Moving away from the early fillerish episodes, how about that time when Al meets Scar? Scar has already tried to kill he and his brother once. Al’s armour was completely wrecked and they nearly died. But when he meets up with Scar outside the fifth Lab, he is nice and attempts to befriend Scar, asking about his past and such. Nevermind that Scar has told him that he still intends to kill Ed.

Well, I guess Scar did help to defeat his opponent that Al was struggling against-

Oh right. Al also listens to Barry the Chopper and allows the crazed serial killer to convince him that he might not be real. That all his memories are fake. He gets caught up in his emotions and stops listening to logic and this leads to a terrible fallout with his brother. Helping Scar paid off at least as he helps him fight some mercenaries and Scar decides to help and defend the other Ishvalans, ending his crusade against State Alchemists. 

Al’s awesome trusting nature also helps him to befriend Marta, as he helps to keep her safe even against her wishes when she and Greed have kidnapped him. 

This pays off later when he meets up with Marta again and she gives them a ride. 

Though it’s not all so good as he also tries to stop Marta from killing Kimblee because he doesn’t want her to take revenge for betraying Greed. His efforts aren’t enough to save her this time though as she can’t resist trying to kill the Fuhrer and Marta ends up dead. 

As for Kimblee? He turns Alphonse into a bomb and Scar has to give up his arm to save Al’s life. (Kimblee is killed by Scar)

Next, the brothers run into Hohenheim and Ed wants nothing to do with him while Al isn’t angry at his father for abandoning them at all. He even sides against Edward. Ed seems incredibly hurt by this.

Gosh, couldn’t Al have pretended to be irritated for five minutes to support Ed before forgiving his dad? Ed’s feelings are hardly unreasonable. Anyway, this means he can spend the night with his dad and get to know him a little. 

Then Al gets a call from Shou Tucker of all people and decides to learn about the Philosopher’s stone from him. He goes behind Ed’s back to do this. Al is somehow surprised when this backfires as Tucker uses him and a piece of his Philosophers stone. 

Finally, there’s Al’s reaction to Sloth. Ed is not inclined to trust her as he realises she’s not their mother and means them harm. He tells Al as much. Al still wants to trust her though.

He even throws her weakness away and shoves Ed to the ground. Sloth proceeds to manipulate and control Al (she literally hides inside his body) while trying to kill Ed. 

Yeah, so in almost every one of these instances, Al ends up fighting or arguing with his brother. Only some of the time does this work out for them. It's seriously impressive how optimistic Al is about people.

There’s only one incident I can think of where Al isn’t incredibly trusting. And that’s against Wrath. This is probably one of the times where it might have been good if Alphonse had been less aggressive as Wrath isn’t actually a bad sort. Edward was already being sufficiently wary and untrusting towards Wrath. The two of them end up handling the situation really badly given its Envy of all people that acts kind and earns Wrath’s trust. I think it’s because he has Ed’s limbs – that’s like the one thing Al can’t accept because he feels guilty about it.

The Elrics actually complement each other really well. Al’s trusting nature gets people to open up towards them while Ed is more rational. Ed, for instance, realises something is off about Tucker long before Al, who only understands what Tucker’s done to Nina when it’s revealed. Al’s basically the naive, trusting brother while Ed is the one who has to be responsible. Err, Ed can be pretty reckless and emotional as well, it’s just that he’s more cynical and less prone to trusting killers and liars.


	7. FMA 03: Maria Ross

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you just love a side-character. I wrote this in appreciation of Maria Ross, who doesn't typically get much attention in the FMA fandom.

Maria Ross is lovely. She’s introduced in Episode 18, which is while Ed’s studying Marcoh’s notes and she immediately gets into conflict with him. She sees Ed’s complete lack of concern for his own safety to be an issue when she’s been tasked with protecting him. 

But it’s not just her job that compels her to care for the Elric brothers. She sees them as lost children getting in over their heads and needing someone to look after them. And she’s fully prepared to step into the role herself – whether Ed likes it or not.

Throughout this episode, she and Ed conflict with each other, Ross gets irritated at his impulsiveness and gets angry when he insists on working in the library where she isn’t able to provide him proper protection. Ed refuses to listen to her and he’s not obliged to (due to his rank as State Alchemist). He’s been dismissing her and Denny Broche repeatedly and very much sees bodyguards as another hindrance to his goals – another thing forced on him. (Ed sees the Military as a necessary evil.)

So, Maria talks to Hughes about it instead. And nice as Hughes might be towards Ed, consistently helping him where others wouldn’t, Hughes takes Ross’s side in their argument. 

Hughes is often bending the rules for Ed and Al, he told them about how Scar killed Nina, offered him case files when Ed was investigating Barry, and helped him fight the terrorists on the train. Ed was fully expecting Hughes to be on his side. And Hughes knows it too – he doesn’t like denying them. But he cares about their safety too and recognises that Maria Ross cares.

Ross inquires about why Hughes would let them chase after the Philosopher’s stone at all and Hughes offers some nice insight. Ed and Al would chase after it regardless of whether he let them or not. By helping them, he is able to better protect them and, uniquely among the military, has Ed and Al’s trust. (Because Ed certainly doesn’t trust Mustang at this point in the series.) 

Additionally, Hughes says that the State’s future is in their hands. That he and Ross have a duty to enable them to research into the Philosopher’s stone. Clearly, Hughes recognises the importance of their quest and is already looking into the bigger picture. Looking into it further is dangerous, as Hughes will soon learn though. Ross doesn’t like this but accepts it. From here, she’s more actively supporting their endeavours.

In the next episode, the Truth behind Truths, Ed has found out the secret of the Philosopher’s stone and wants to just give up. It’s practically what Ross was aiming for an episode ago but now she actively encourages him to continue searching, citing the importance of it, how it goes beyond their own personal goals. 

Like, Ed wanted to make a stone to save his brother but after learning the cost, he realises he can’t go through with this any more. But he’s also finding out a lot about the military’s corruption and how the stone has been used in Ishval. There is more to look into, namely Lab 5 and what lies at the heart of this conspiracy. Ross encourages Ed to continue looking even if they themselves won’t gain anything from it because there is more to learn. He can’t let himself be turned away because he doesn’t like the answers he’s getting. Ross recognises he’s scared and still essentially a child, but encourages him anyway. It’s a great scene.

When Ed finds his determination once more, Ross gives this smile, like she’s proud of them.

‘Course Ed and Al still don’t trust her fully yet, though he did share his conclusions concerning Lab 5 with her. Ross promised to use the military to look into it but Ed and Al decide to sneak out. 

I try not to bring up BH too much in comparison so… sorry. But the two different responses from their respective Maria Ross’s highlight their differences. When BH Broche and Ross discover the boys have snuck out, they’re comically worried and don’t want anyone to find out they lost track of the boys as it might get them into trouble. They’re concerned about the Elrics too, yes, but also themselves. 

Maria Ross in 03, meanwhile, looks betrayed to find they’ve snuck out and informs Hughes. He agrees to authorise a military sweep of the abandoned Laboratory, getting a bunch of other soldiers, including Armstrong involved even though it’s the middle of the night. Fuhrer Bradley actually runs into them and goes along with it (likely realising it would be too suspicious to deny their operation.) 

Upon entering Lab 5, Ross finds Ed in the red room and bravely wades into the room to calm him down. He had absorbed incomplete stone material and was in great danger of some sort of alchemic backlash as he was unable to control all that energy. Even Armstrong seemed to think it was too dangerous to go near him. Maria Ross calms him with a motherly hug, likely the first Ed had received in a long time. 

In the aftermath of Lab 5, Ross confronts Ed, slapping him when he tries to brush the whole incident off. She asks him to try and start trusting adults more and he agrees, apologising for some of his reckless behaviour. It’s a good start to an episode about opening up emotionally. 

Ed and Al leave for Dublith so Ross doesn’t show up much more for a while. In Episode 38, she spots Winry and Sheska eavesdropping in Central and helps them out against Sloth, where they reveal some of what they’re learning to them. Ross is quite observant to have noticed Winry there and this nicely leads into Ross’s next significant appearance.

When she hears Ed and Al are on the run from the military, she and Broche decide to have an abrupt ‘vacation’ in Risembool. She tells Winry and Sheska how Ed and Al are wanted by the military and how she doesn’t believe it. Here we see Ross actively going against the military she’s a part of. 

And then again, when she hears news that Ed and Al have been arrested by the military, she goes to break them out. That’s direct action against the military. It’s really the Tringham brothers she ends up saving but they run into Ed and Izumi again anyway and Maria ends up actively fighting against Archer, who pretty much represents some of the worst of the Military while she’s basically become a rebel.

The epilogue shows her working in the new Government now that the Military state has been overthrown. She seems fairly busy so there’s a lot being done. She’s clearly doing the best for the State’s future.

So, all in all, Maria Ross is a character who has the Elric brother’s best interests at heart. She’s a part of the military but she’s nice and goes beyond her duty for them. She represents the best parts of it – the good people working within it who care and want to protect others. Unlike everyone else, she still sees the Elrics as children and tries to encourage Edward to trust her. 

She is very principled and when she disagrees with something she will not stand for it. She does not let Edward get away with whatever he wants, she’s ready to question Hughes and she’s ready to question the Military too. Ultimately, her intentions are good and it’s a greatly encouraging sign to see her and Broche and Sheska working in the reformed State.


	8. FMA 03: Riza + comparison with BH Riza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually two separates posts I made about Riza, both fairly short. The second was a response to an ask I got requesting a comparison between 03 and Brotherhood Riza. I've edited them together here though it might a bit choppily.

Changing one character can lead to other changes. I'm going to be discussing Riza and her portrayal in each version, but to do that, I'll start by mentioning Roy. 

Roy is a more morally ambiguous character in 03 compared to his Brotherhood counterpart. We more explicitly see him blowing up children and he is responsible for killing Winry’s parents. As well as a grimmer look at his backstory, his attitude towards the Elric brothers feels colder and more manipulative. He’s got his good moments too but it comes across more as attempting to be heroic in order to redeem himself rather than a naturally good, heroic person. He has his dark moments in Brotherhood too but his higher moments are more frequent where much of 03 leaves him in a position where he can't make much useful change.

Riza’s not explored nearly as much in 03 as in Brotherhood where she gets much more backstory and is more central to the story. One thing that remains consistent is her devotion to Roy though. Her support is unwavering. Never seeing any of her backstory, we’re instead left to wonder at why she trusts him so much.

  


Because Roy is less obviously a good person, it makes Riza’s unwavering support of him more remarkable because it can be seen more as a character flaw. Her decision to defend his actions really shows how biased her feelings are:

-Refusing to condemn him for killing Winry’s parents even when Winry confronts her about it. Shielding Roy when Winry tries to confront him about it.

-Defending (admiring) his actions of using his flame alchemy at that protesting refugee camp to scare people into submitting to the military’s orders.

-Helping him to stage a coup in order to go and assassinate the Fuhrer.

It’s not a bad thing. Indeed she is very aware of all the things Roy has done and the two of them are virtually always together. My personal headcanon would be that Riza feels her own guilt for the deeds she committed in the past and sees Roy as her way of absolving that guilt. His goals are, of course, to change the way the State is run in order to prevent more pointless wars such as Ishval.

Riza’s great. It’s just, they’re not perfect people. She’s very much a loyal soldier who only ever offers any advice or criticism when the two of them are alone. I feel she will defend Roy to the end. It’s admirable but it’s also dangerous because he’s a clearly flawed person. Is her stance the correct one? Does Roy deserve such unwavering loyalty? Does she excuse too much? These are the sort of questions 03!Riza raises for me.

\--------------

I should note, I’m reading into 03!Riza's character quite a lot to get such an interpretation. I couldn't say she's really explored. She’s simply a constant presence at Mustang’s side. I like her well enough, her personality as a strict, reasonable woman works well amidst some of the zanier soldier personalities but compared to BH!Riza, she’s not nearly so much of a major character. She’s reasonably likeable but underdeveloped when she could have had an arc.

BH Riza gets a ton more development. We honestly explore Ishval more from her point of view than Mustang’s, looking into her own actions in taking lives in a war. That conversation with Kimblee where he suggests she takes pride in her actions over killing rings very true and seems to scare her.

We explore her family a little, how her father was a cruel person who tattooed dangerous knowledge onto her back. It’s pretty awful and yet she also seems to, in some ways, still respect her father; clearly the relationship was a complicated one. Mustang’s learning of Flame alchemy was directly linked to her and her father and she holds herself a little responsible for it. Her back is burned so the secrets of the incredibly destructive alchemy can die.

Her loyalty to Mustang is less questionable here as he’s more heroic, as I noted earlier. She’s also very willing to challenge him over his heroic actions, criticising him whenever he goes out of his way to save her.

That said, character development can be a double-edged sword.

There is this element of her character that I’m not fond of where she is prepared to die if Mustang is dead - she can’t live without him. She completely loses composure when fighting Lust while Alphonse is encouraging her to keep on fighting because she thinks he’s dead. Against Envy she threatens to kill Mustang and then herself if he goes through with killing Envy. That she has to go to such extremes to get him to listen to her makes me uncomfortable. She might be saying that just to get him to stop and think but it’s frightfully similar to the battle with Lust.

Now, this is sort of interesting but I feel like it’s not something that should be portrayed romantically and I kind of just dislike how she’s such a strong person who can live with many things and evils such as her actions in Ishval, yet she can’t live without him. It gives their relationship this sort of unhealthy feel which I’d appreciate exploring but not in an idealistic romantic way. (Especially as we don't get much reciprocation from Roy in this regard.)

The fight with Lust somewhat reminds me of the 03 fight with the Fuhrer in the last episode. In both of those we see Riza show vulnerability but in 03 it’s practically the first time and well-earned after 51 episodes and Mustang is literally bleeding out, very close to death and she also just killed the person attacking him, whereas in BH it’s only episode 19 and she hasn’t seen Mustang and Lust is still there threatening her while its Alphonse staying strong and Mustang saves her.

That said, Riza’s relationship with Mustang is explored in BH. We see how close they are and how they understand each other with all their coded messages and how Riza is used against him and there’s that whole scene where Mustang refuses to perform human transmutation. I also like the scenes at the end where Riza’s guiding a blinded Mustang.

I won’t go on any further, others have talked plenty about BH Riza and Mustang. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of them. She’s a far more major character than 03 Riza and I don’t like every part of her character development but she certainly gets far more of it. I have no problems with 03 Riza but there’s just less of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm.. not altogether happy with this one. I think I'd like to refine it at some point.


	9. FMA 03: Lust - a killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picture heavy and light on actual words but I'm very fond of this one.

I think one of the more impressive things the FMA 03 did was get me to care about Lust while simultaneously making her an unrepentant killer. 

03!Lust has an impressive kill count. Quite possibly the highest in the series (by kills I mean deaths that are shown - not characters who are said to have killed a lot of people off screen or way in the past. Admittedly some of her kills fade to black so the show isn’t too gory.). She an unrepentant killer who happens to want to be human and she’s very determined, okay? 

  
(Episode 16)

In the 03 series, Marcoh does not survive his encounter with Lust. She kills him after finding out what she needs to know and Gluttony eats his body.

  
(Episode 22)

She destroys this soul attached to a helmet before threatening to the same to Al. 

  
(Episode 32)

That black blur? It’s her fingers stabbing someone so quickly everyone thinks he must have been shot. Yeah, she kills Yoki here in order to incite a riot.

  
(Episode 34)

Two of Greed’s three remaining chimeras die to Lust’s piercing fingers. We see her smiling, then the sound of her lethal attack, then fade to darkness.

  
(Episode 35)

Lust is troubled by her memories around Lujon and she kills him. This is one of those kills she seems so confused and conflicted by.

  
(Episode 42)

Three soldiers at once. She doesn’t waste a second here.

And those are all of Lust’s onscreen kills. It's pretty high and most of them are named characters too. I’ll add in some other fights she has, showing more of this killer nature. 

  
(Episode 25)

Here’s Lust casually threatening Hughes though of course she lets him get away so Envy can deal with him. (Envy has less onscreen kills but he makes more high-profile ones).

  
(Episode 18)

Not the last time she gets into a deadly fight with Scar, though she seems to enjoy this one much more than her later encounters. It wasn't her intention to burn down the library, but she's too busy enjoying the chance to fight. Scar gets away though not without some injuries. 

  
(Episode 45)

Finally, she deals some heavy blows but Wrath, repeatedly killing the other homunculus. It takes a bit more than that for him to be killed permanently though.

  
  
(Episode 46)

And that appears to have been her intention. This whole fight feels like a brutal one-sided beatdown at first. She isn’t able to finish him however. 

The other character with an impressive kill count is Scar. A character you also can’t help but care about. He kills… Nina, Basque Gran, Barry the Chopper, Kimblee and a number of soldiers. 

The two of them make such a great couple. They could be Murderhobos together. I’d like to say they might both settle down but they’d probably go start a revolution together to destroy the military, something like that. 

Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that Lust, as well as desiring humanity, is also a very effective and merciless killer. It’s an interesting duality. She’s arguably the most dangerous and she never displays any remorse for her actions. Yet she’s also extremely sympathetic. I love her exploration. 


	10. FMA 03: Wrath likes to mimic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one of those little things I love.

I think it’s kind of cute how when Wrath he has no memories he goes around mimicking others, and by others I mean Edward, who’s the first person he meets.

In his first appearance he’s in shadow and unclothed, shown to be watching the Elrics as they wander about happily. (One of the only times they’re happy and its reminiscing about all the terror they experienced as kids, like getting attacked by wild animals and struggling with hunger…)

Then we seem him again and he’s transfigured himself some clothes. We only see his back and a brief evil smile at this point.

We get a proper look at him at the beginning of the next episode, dressed in a black shirt and shiny black trousers. You can’t see it in this shot but he’s actually got black boots on as well.

Yeah, he’s dressed exactly like Ed, (who isn’t wearing a coat or jacket in these episodes) apart from the automail arm. It’s more difficult to mimic! But that’s the very next thing he tries.

Stone fist, to punch Ed with. (Ed did basically attack him here, it’s totally justified for him to be struggling.)

Wrath doesn’t really hold a grudge at this point. That night, Ed and Al go to interrogate him and Wrath just asks if they could play with him, presumably to have fun like Wrath observed on the island.

  


(I wish we could’ve seen this whole scene of Ed and Al deciding to play catch the rat. They’re actually having fun of all things.) Anyway, Ed isn’t interested in playing with Wrath and instead decides to upset and frighten him.

The next day Ed and Al go and interrogate/attack Wrath _again_ and he ends up running away. They track him down again and he’s calmed down and they actually attempt to have a reasonable conversation and are almost nice to him. So Wrath opens up to him and asks curiously about their limbs, because clearly the automail arm thing has still been bothering him all this time. It’s funny how he asks this question so naively and yet it’s basically the worst possible question to ask the brothers who have worked out that Wrath’s limbs might be Ed’s.

After this, the military grabs Wrath and he has his fateful encounter with Envy, who is friendly at this point and Wrath regains some memories of the gate and what he is. And for whatever reason, his homunculus outfit strongly resembles Envy’s.

  


(I love how only one of his arms has a wrist thingy on it. Same with the feet.)

Even with his new memories he still mimicks Ed sometimes. Using the same kind of spear to fight him with and transfiguring his arm into a stone spike, as Ed likes to do.

He even cries when Sloth is killed and Ed doesn’t. Ed states out loud that he feels like Wrath was crying for him. His final act of mimicking Ed is of course getting automail from Winry, specifically the new models she’d been designing for Ed. Plus he and Al can interact, while Ed and Al are separated. Wrath totally stole Ed’s happy ending! He’s not even grateful about it…

It’s a shame that Wrath doesn’t get much of a conclusion to his character in the series proper. He’s still very angry and confused. The best thing about CoS was definitely all the Wrath scenes, they show him being much calmer even if he’s not exactly happy.


	11. FMA 03: Hohenheim of Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, far from my favoruite character but I really love what I wrote here.

Hohenheim is one of the odder characters in FMA 03. It is perhaps one of the clearest symptoms of how the series overtook the manga as Hohenheim’s story in that isn’t covered until much later. Therefore he’s set up to be important but he’s also not meant to be much more than a minor character.

In the manga, I believe Father’s existence was beginning to be revealed (I haven’t actually read much of it, I confess) and it’s not clear at first that he is a distinct character from Hohenheim- the reader is supposed to think it’s Ed and Al’s father. (He looks just like him, you’re not going to assume it's his identical twin.) So initially, it seems that Hohenheim is supposed to be both Ed and Al’s father who their mother clearly loved and also a monstrous person who controls the Homunculi and has some sort of evil plot that involves wars and conflict. 

03 Hohenheim is an interesting attempt at this I think - he's far from a good person but not nearly as terrible. He has clearly done terrible things in the past but he’s not actually the antagonist of the story. Everything we see of him shows someone who’s trying to be a better person or at least move on from his dark past. He doesn’t make any excuses or apologies for his past (he avoids talking about it entirely actually) and doesn’t expect anything from Ed or Al either. 

Towards the end, Ed does believe it might be his father behind the Homunculi, until he actually meets Dante beneath Central. I kinda wish this had been emphasised a little more. The ending is a little rushed in this regard, sadly.

Hohenheim doesn’t actually do much in the series. He confronts Dante, trying to get her to listen to reason and offers Ed some answers and support in the other world. That’s basically it. His past is incredibly interesting though and works as something of a potential dark path for Ed if he had allowed himself to forget his morals and didn’t have his brother’s influence. 

(I intended this to be a quick post but now I’ve mentioned Ed…)

Hohenheim created a Philosopher’s stone, sacrificing other lives to do it just as Ed was tempted to do in Lab 5. He also created a Homunculus, just as Ed and Al did, a failed human transmutation that went badly. In fact, Ed and Al learn how to make one by following his notes. Where Ed eventually has the courage to face his creation and fix his mistakes, Hohenheim has been running from his mistakes for a long time. He never even meets Envy (except in CoS). In the series proper, we finally see him facing Dante but it’s far too little too late. 

This change of heart probably comes from falling in love with Trisha. Of course, even with Trisha he’s too afraid to reveal his secrets and chooses to leave rather than reveal the way his current body is beginning to rot. Ed has also had a tendency to run from his mistakes and hide what troubles him. The prime example would be how he wanted to ask Al for years if Al blamed him for the human transmutation and doesn’t find the courage until episode 24, after their fight and with some support and encouragement from Winry. But Ed does get better at opening up and facing his problems. When Al tells Hohenheim how he lost his body, Hohenheim’s talks of taking someone else’s body. Al hates this idea though – he and Ed just want to regain what they’ve lost. 

In the last episode, Ed seems to hold no anger towards his father, nor does he try to avoid him but he actually opens up to him about some of his worries and it’s a mark of how much he’s grown. For all that it’s said that FMA 03 is a kind of dark story, Ed avoided the dark path. Hohenheim was able to change too even after everything he’d done in his past (his change came as a result of meeting Trisha and falling in love). 

I feel like every character, villain or otherwise, is given a chance to change and do the right thing in FMA. (What is right is subjective but they can at least turn away from their past evil acts.) No matter how awful their crimes are. Not everyone takes this chance but it’s there. 


	12. FMA 03: Ed's character and Sloth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't know how to title this one. Consider this: why Ed created Sloth as his 'sin'.

In FMA 03, when Ed and Al performed human transmutation they ended up creating a homunculus – Sloth. It might seem a somewhat random choice at first glance. Nothing about Trisha Elric was particularly slothful, indeed she raised Ed and Al alone, giving them tons of care. She doesn’t particularly show any vices in the brief time we get to know her.

But then, the point of Sloth’s character is to show that she is not Trisha Elric. She may look just like her but she was created by Ed and Al. This post is made in order to talk more about Ed and his similarities with Sloth.

A critique I sometimes see of Sloth is that she doesn’t embody her sin very well. None of the homunculi in 03 really embody their sins perfectly though, as they were merely named after the sins by Dante. But like, what is the sin of Sloth? It means laziness, sure. But it’s not just reluctance to do work and the desire for rest. The homunculi in 03 are actually incapable of sleep. Sloth also means not caring about things I.E indifference, apathy. This is mental laziness if you like, and denial and avoiding your problems rather than having the willpower to deal with them are other examples of mental sloth.

The homunculus Sloth is very apathetic. She ruthless, shown to be able to kill people without a second thought if they become an inconvenience. She wants to kill Ed and Al because their existence is making her feel things and she doesn’t want to deal with it any more.

I think that the homunculi in 03 all reflect their creators in some ways. For instance, Scar’s brother was in love and ended up creating Lust. He was a very curious person, learning alchemy despite being an Ishvalan and Lust also seems very curious and knowledgeable. Izumi is a very violent person and she creates Wrath. Ed’s not exactly Slothful – Pride might seem a better fit.

But he and Sloth are alike in some ways. Following the human transmutation, both wake up and are encouraged to join the military – Ed by Roy and Sloth by Dante and Pride. Both join the military, Ed feels guilty about the human transmutation and wants to fix things by restoring his brother, Sloth is troubled by the human transmutation and wants to fix things by becoming human. And so, both of them decide to try and get the Philosopher’s stone, having convinced themselves that it will be the solution to their problems. Sloth’s being manipulated, blindly following Dante. Ed’s also being manipulated by Dante. Neither of them are willing to accept their fates.

One of the big themes of FMA 03 is death. Edward has trouble accepting death. His reaction to hearing Winry’s parents are dead is to suggest bringing them back. At his mother’s grave, he doesn’t cry because he refuses to accept she’s gone and suggests bringing her back. Edward is motivated by this denial, (Pride is another big motivator, believing he’s smart enough to do what no one else has ever managed). Later, Nina’s death really shakes him and his instinctive reaction is to try and bring her back – Mustang very coldly tells him to move on. Ed later tells Rose that she needs to try and move forward too. She had allowed herself to believe that Cornello could bring her dead boyfriend back to life. Rose takes this advice to heart, ironically far better than Ed himself can.

As well as trouble with accepting death, Ed has trouble accepting that he could have created a homunculus. Izumi and Wrath have to spell out exactly how a homunculus is made before Ed can believe they’re created through human transmutation. Even then, he refuses to recognise Sloth. (And he totally can’t miss it, he stares hard at Sloth the first time he saw her and Winry recognises her in a second.) Literally right after Wrath explains how a Homunculus is created, he runs into Sloth. But Ed pretends she’s all she appears to be – the fuhrer’s secretary. Al attempts to bring up this multiple times but each time Ed dismisses him, doing anything to avoid that conversation.

But Ed grows up over the course of the series, he grows more selfless over time, becoming more concerned with problems outside himself and his brother. In Liore, the first time he visited, he is utterly concerned with his own goal and in the end he’s only angry that he didn’t get the Philosopher’s stone for his trouble. He doesn’t even realise that he’s only caused instability and conflict for his actions. On his return to Liore he’s forced to face the consequences of his actions and its also the first time he confronts Sloth. After Liore, he’s got the stone but he doesn’t want to use it anymore. His goal is now to stop the homunculi because they are dangerous creatures who want to start wars and cause much death and despair. Therefore, he goes to Risembool to visit his mother’s grave in order to defeat Sloth.

Sloth doesn’t change, she doesn’t want to change. She doesn’t allow herself to care about others and ultimately she forces Ed and Al into a fight to the death. She can accept nothing else. Only when she’s defeated and there’s nothing else to do does she seem to really care. Maybe she just wants to hurt them with sweet words (she can pretend to be kind very well) but maybe she immediately forgives them and accepts her death. All the homunculi are frightfully accepting of their own deaths actually. Scar called Nina a sin against nature and kills her as a kindness. It seems the homunculi see their destruction in the same way.

After this, Ed goes to face Dante fully accepting that he has a duty to stop her. He forgives his father after Hohenheim explains himself to him. Forgiving meaning accept that Hohenheim regrets much of his past and is trying to do what he can to improve now and letting go of his anger, (Still condemning Hohenheim’s past actions as pretty evil and selfish.) Blaming Hohenheim for Trisha’s death is another symbol of his denial, inability to accept death as a natural part of life. Forgiving him is part of Ed growing up.

His final action is to perform human transmutation to try and save Al. Ed’s changed in some was but his care for his brother is too much a part of him. Still, he accepts it may not work, it may be for naught, but he still has to try and even smiles gently as he performs it, knowing he probably won’t survive. 

———–

There’s something admirable about Sloth’s rejection of her former life and wish to realise her actual self. It makes her quite sympathetic when you finally hear her motives. You might see it as quite feminist even (rejecting the role of a housewife forced on her by others in order to embrace her true self once that false identity has been finally stripped away.) She's still undeniably a villain though - her problems are more her methods - being in denial is not the same as moving on and she refuses to properly deal with her emotions in a healthy manner, resorting to killing.


	13. FMA 03: Scar's attack on the Elrics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a little headcanon I have.

When Scar attacks Ed and Al in FMA 03 initially he’s on a mission to kill all state alchemists because of how the military used these ‘human weapons’ to massacre the Ishvalans. Of course, Ed was just a child during the war in Ishval so it seems really cruel for Scar to attack him for it. (Even if Ed did willingly join the military which has not reversed its policy with regards to Ishvalans.) 

But looking at the episodes again, I’m liking the idea that Scar wasn’t truly after them until they got in his way and even then he’s reluctant.

We first meet Scar in episode 7 and he talks to Ed in episode 8, after he's decided to hunt down State alchemists. He says to Ed it's good that he was leaving the Military and privately says to himself that if he was still a State alchemist, he'd destroy him. But the very end of the episode has Ed back as a State alchemist with Scar taking note of this. Three years later, and he hasn't actually attacked Elrics once. 

Ed and Al travel to this village in the East to track down Dr Marcoh. But the Iron Blood Alchemist, Basque Grand follows them there (to arrest Marcoh). He heard in the previous episode that they were asking about him. 

Scar is there to hunt down Basque Grand, a man who was very definitely involved in Ishval and indeed seemed to have been promoted to Brigadier General partially due to his success in the campaign. He is still very influential in the military and is generally a very dangerous person. Killing him no doubt sent a message – which is his aim. Truly, he is an excellent choice in target.

Then Scar turns his attention towards Marcoh who was also very involved in Ishval, having supplied the military with the destructive Red Stones. He has deserted the military of course and I wouldn't be surprised if Scar didn't bother to go out of his way to track him down but Marcoh is right in front of him. He's another valid target, so of course Scar makes a move on Marcoh – and not Edward who is also present. 

Edward involves himself though, getting in Scar’s way by attempting to defend Marcoh, dragging him away from Scar. Only then does Scar turn his attention to Edward. Similarly, he’s perfectly willing to ignore Al until Al gets in his way by shielding Ed who is still shielding Marcoh. 

Ed and Al get away from Scar as he's engaged by Armstrong but an episode later he runs into them again and they're still trying to get Marcoh away.

Finally, when Ed is cornered, with his arm broken, Scar approaches to kill him but he’s surprisingly slow about it. First, he offers Ed a moment to pray (which Ed rejects). He then has a short conversation with Ed about revenge and his brother and equivalent exchange and then holds his arm over Ed head for quite a few seconds (with Al yelling in the background) without activating it until Marcoh intervenes. 

  


Sure, this can be the show being dramatic but I think it’s that Scar was very reluctant to attack the brothers and all his words about how his cause is righteous were also about trying to convince himself to destroy them. 

After this, Scar does hunt them down specifically but I think that might be because he’s aware that they’re after the Philosopher’s stone. Scar knows how dangerous the stone is and will be aware that they’re getting close to it. His quest to kill them at this point is likely specifically to prevent the creation of the stone. That’s how I see it anyway.

When Ed chooses not to create a stone after all, Scar saves him and Al, blowing up the room to thoroughly ruin the Homunculi’s plans. It’s clear he is changing his mind about the brothers, (no doubt helped by Al’s friendliness). That said, I think he didn't ever want to kill them.


	14. FMA 03: Ed feeling lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short post. Another look at Ed's character development.

Here’s some musing from me on this little scene in FMA 03, episode 19, (The Truth Behind Truths) where Ed feels lost and wants to give up.

Ed: (sighs) Just face it, Al. It’s gonna be this way our whole lives.

Al: Don’t say that.

Ed: I really thought it was going to work out, brother. That we would find the Philosopher’s stone and it would all be okay.

Al: It still will be. We’ll find the stone, brother. We will! And we’ll get our bodies back to normal. And be happy.

-From the English dub of this scene. (They’re overall reasonably similar to the subtitled version but I liked the wording of the dub slightly more here.)

————————–

I like this scene. He’s just figured out the ingredients to a Philosopher’s stone and Ed is absolutely defeated. He’s looking at his metal arm as he says the first line, and he’s just completely giving up on his goal. Al’s trying his best to cheer Ed up and get him to move on but he’s simply not ready to move on yet. Al’s pretty unfazed himself or maybe he’s just trying to be strong when Ed’s so obviously affected.

Looking at the series as a whole, up to this point the Elric brothers have been entirely self-interested. They’ve only recently learned about the Ishval massacre (In episode 15) and were shocked by it but war is still a far-off thing that has nothing to do with them and the main shock was that it had affected soldiers they knew (Mustang, Armstrong, Marcoh etc.) but still not their problem. They’re about to get involved in Lab 5 where they start to realise that there’s more at stake than just themselves though. By seeking out the stone they’ve come to the attention of the Homunculi who are willing to destroy countless other lives to achieve what they want.

That marks the turning point where they start behaving more selflessly: seeking out Scar in order to stop him from making the stone because it’s the right thing to do, telling Mustang about how the Homunculi have infiltrated the military and, most importantly, dealing with Homunculi who will keep trying to make a stone. Saving themselves has become a secondary goal to stopping evil. Ed muses a bit on this in episode 48: Goodbye – how it’s important to live outside their own dreams because their individual actions do affect the world beyond them. (Liore is the clear example of how his own naive actions had unforeseen consequences.)

So, this scene continues with Maria Ross convincing Ed to keep looking to find out the full truth behind the Philosopher’s stone. Ed is completely unwilling to sacrifice anyone else’s life for his own needs, the point of continuing now is to look at the situation outside his own selfish goals. And find out the truth. He gets tempted to sacrifice lives for the stone inside Lab 5, but ultimately rejects sacrificing lives to achieve his own goals.

He still struggles over the decision he made though – this is not a smooth transition. Ed feels like he failed his brother in choosing not to make a stone. Al has his own problems at this point, questioning his own existence and identity. Ed considers that Al might be angry at him for not prioritising their own goals and making the stone. They both have to open up about their feelings, basically. While both of them do try to move on, it’s a struggle for them to move forward.

After killing Greed, Ed reflects on the moment where he was tempted again. This time it’s not with any regret about failing Al, it’s about how guilty he feels for almost crossing a line.


	15. Fma 03: Ed's struggle in 5th lab

The 5th laboratory is my favourite arc in the series. Ed really gets pushed to his limit here, in multiple ways. There’s a great deal happening but I want to focus on the encounter with the Slicer Brothers and their impact on him.

Okay, episode 20, Ed has a fight with a pair of brothers trapped in a suit of armour. He defeats them though it is a close battle and his automail arm nearly breaks. He also sustains two pretty bad wounds in his shoulder and in his side. His vision grows hazy while fighting and he almost loses conciousness due to blood loss. Overall, it’s a brutal battle.

But it’s the aftermath that becomes really interesting. The Slicer brothers ask Ed to destroy them. Ed refuses, stating that he doesn’t want to kill them because he considers them to be human beings, to their surprise. His words really have an impact on them. (And the beautiful OST Bratva plays.)

Unfortunately his words are not enough They are gratified by his sentiments and genuinely begin to respect him, both for his ability to defeat them and for his kindness and respect for their own value as more than objects. But they’re also broken – Ed’s destroyed them such that they can’t even pretend to be human like Al can. And they don’t believe they could be accepted by society, not in their current form and not as the humans they were – murderers. The younger brother chooses death over being trapped in his form. It seems he only coped so long by convincing himself that he was no more than a weapon because he couldn’t live as a human. Therefore, Ed kind words are painful, because they taunt him with an unattainable idea of a better existence, a better life.

Ed is being presented with his worst fears here. That being a soul in a suit of armour is worse than death. That his efforts to help others may hurt them. That even if he didn’t intend for it, he feels partially responsible for their death. That there are no right answers sometimes. That there are no solutions to some things.

Immediately following this, Ed goes deeper into Lab 5 and is confronted with red stones, Enough red stones to create a Philosopher’s stone to save his brother. So shortly after seeing another younger brother kill himself rather than continue living in a suit of armour, Ed cannot help but be desperate to fix his brother. Al has expressed his misery at living as a suit of armour multiple times before and sometimes Ed tried to brush it off and encourage his brother with his promises. But now he cannot ignore it anymore. Here’s the moment where he can make good on his promises. Al cannot continue to live as a suit of armour. Ed assures himself that he won’t let Al go through what happened to the Slicer brothers.

  


When he looks into the red room, he imagines his brother human again. He’s been so harshly reminded of the promise he made and the consequences of failure.

This is exactly what’s on his mind when faced with a decision to sacrifice a group of people to make the stone. Lust is even threatening to destroy Al’s anchoring seal for extra motivation. (That the Homunculi’s own goal is sympathetic and relateable, to become human too, doesn’t help.) Refusing to act is giving up their quest,

When he realises he can’t do it, he quietly apologises to Al, feeling like his kindness and decency is a weakness. (In the next episode he even believes Al is angry at him for his decision.)


	16. FMA 03: Al's struggle in 5th lab

The Lab 5 arc in FMA 03 really served to make Al feel really inhuman. I talked about Lab 5 from Ed’s perspective last chapter but it’s a completely different experience for Al. (And somehow just as bad.)

He and his brother have to immediately split up because Al can’t fit inside the vents with his huge armour while Ed can. So he’s forced to wait outside until he gets attacked by another soulbound suit of armour. Except this one is the serial killer that so terrified Ed a few years ago. Definitely the opposite of the kind of person Al is.

Barry the Chopper immediately starts interrogating Al with stuff he’d rather not think about – his general existence and whether his love for his brother is real or artificial. Al worries and becomes distracted but puts it out of his mind for the time being as Scar appears and a way into the Lab is opened. 

All is going fine at first, Alphonse gets Scar to open up a bit about himself and his past. But then, the Homunculi appear. 

Lust is all too happy to confirm that she in inhuman and Gluttony attacks Alphonse. He eats all four of Al’s limbs, rendering him completely immobile. Al has entirely lost the ability to move at all and he already can’t really feel things. He’s completely helpless and must feel like an object, very far from human.

Indeed the homunculi continue to treat him like an object, dragging him around and Lust even sits on top of him. He can only watch as Ed gets beaten up by Envy. And they barely acknowledge anything he says. Al is far from quiet for the remainder of this arc but rarely does anyone pay his words the slightest heed. Not only can Al not move, but he can’t even be heard.

In fact, the only stuff that does get said to him is about how the world is cruel. Also, in one respect and the Homunculi aren’t so different – they both want to be human. It’s another comparison that Al must absolutely hate – probably just as bad as the similarity between him and Barry the Chopper. Meanwhile he’s being used as a bargaining chip to convince his Ed to make the stone.

Ed is particularly bad about speaking to Al in this scene. He is so consumed with his own moral dilemma that he is neglecting to respond to Al at all. You’ve got Al screaming for Ed to stop, not to do anything and Ed shows no reaction to any of Al’s words. Al is at the centre of his thoughts, but he’s thinking of his promise, of Al being human again.

Ed doesn’t go through with it and Scar appears to save them, and then the Military arrives. Ed’s rendered unconscious and they’re both carried out. Al is still all broken up and can do nothing but wait for Ed to wake up before they talk. Although they’ve got out, Al still can’t move at all and all he can do is think. When Ed finally does wake up, neither of them are really talking and Winry has to be called over to fix Ed’s arm. 

When Al wants to get away for a bit, he literally has to call Broche and ask him to move him outside. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that all Al has been doing is stewing over his thoughts and when he’s finally repaired, the first thing he wants to do is to get away after probably multiple of days of being stuck in this completely helpless form. 

He lashes out at his brother when Ed grabs his arm to try and stop him. 

He hadn’t intended to hurt his already injured brother and once again is horrified at his own strength. His next words are instead: “stay back.” Al feels like he is hurting Ed by being close to him and runs away. They do resolve things but first Al has to question his own state of self, asking Scar if he seems human, for instance. 

There’s this one line where Al claims he doesn’t care about Ed, but I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. Truly, Al seems to be struggling to justify his own existence and is seeking validation. He cares enough about Ed that he seems to think that distancing himself might be better. In regards to believing his memories are fake, I feel like it’s a thought that gives him particular horror so he can’t help but dwell on it. But his lack of own self-worth is the real dilemma here and once that continues to be relevant. Later on, Scar will sacrifice himself fro Al’s sake and Al will start wondering whether he’s just cheating death and that he doesn’t deserve to have people repeatedly dying for him. A lot of that is also evident in this arc as well.


	17. FMA 03: Fullmetal heart

Episode 23, Fullmetal Heart – or Heart of Steel if you prefer, is one I'm very fond of so I thought I'd discuss it's themes.

This episode is a gem. (It’s comedy moments even work.) It takes place immediately after the Lab 5 incident and deals with the aftermath. If I had to pick some sort of theme for this episode, it’d be something like Consequences and Responsibility and Opening Up. It’s also sort of a breather after the rather dark and intense Lab 5 arc.

The first shots capture this episode well. Ed wakes up, safe in a hospital. Then he freaks out as he remembers Al. Then he is relieved when he notices Al is with him. Then his face falls as he looks at Al’s condition.

Al’s in a pretty bad state, all of his metal limbs were eaten by Gluttony and he’s completely immobile. And, if anything his emotional state is even worse. Al’s present for much of this episode and yet he hardly says anything, mostly he’s inside his own head and brooding. 

Ed’s pretty battered himself and he has to call Winry to request she come and fix his arm. Plus he’s stuck in his hospital bed for practically the entire episode, evidently drained by his experience. While I’ve always associated the episode name with Al’s feelings, I feel that Ed’s feelings actually get the most focus throughout this episode. 

Maria and Denny ask about Lab 5 and Ed’s instinct is to brush them off. Really, brush the entire incident off and dismiss the consequences. He’s already casually talking about doing better next time. Maria Ross is not amused.

She slaps him on the face, telling him to take things seriously, that they were seriously injured and that they put themselves at risk. It’s a hard hit to shock him into listening. Maria risked her own life getting them out of Lab 5 and has been very diligent in her job to protect them. She asks Edward to try and start trusting adults (because she cares about them). 

Edward gets a similar challenge from Hughes not much later. He’s been looking at all the damage from Lab 5 and now goes to see Ed and Al for some answers. Meanwhile, he’s hiding what’s happening from Roy, choosing not to inform him anything when Roy calls.

At first, Ed’s reluctant to say anything. Hughes waits patiently for him to choose to speak and open up to him. There’s quite a bit of silence as Ed decides whether he wants to trust Hughes with the information. But eventually, he shares the information about the Homunculi – that they’re after the stone and wanted him to make it. 

Hughes thanks him for all the info and promises to look into it while the brothers recover and just take care of themselves. Ed’s shared the burden of that information so now he can focus on his own personal problems essentially. Ed gives a fake smile at that, looking over to Al. 

He hasn’t addressed it yet, but it’s obvious that Al’s not being himself. He’s only given one-word responses any time someone (Ed) directly addresses him and otherwise has been silent. Ed’s not sure what’s wrong but it’s clear that something is bothering Al.

Now, Winry arrives and she’s feeling a little guilty herself. She wasn’t careful enough with her maintenance (probably because she built the arm in three days) and forgot an important component and it got Ed into trouble. It’s treated mostly light-hearted but Winry’s clearly upset with herself and it ties into that theme of consequences nicely. That said, Winry’s presence is good for Ed.

He’s happy to see her and immediately tries to cheer her up when she’s upset and worried for him. She soon realises that things are tense between Ed and Al and immediately asks what’s wrong. She’s upset that they don’t open up, feeling that they’re keeping her at arms length.

Hughes finds her and offers some comfort. He explains that they do respect her and that they’re not good at opening up because they don’t want to burden anyone else with their problems. It’s a good summary of this episode’s them. Ed and Al sitting in silence with their misconceptions rather than talking is an excellent example of their difficulties in communicating even with each other. 

Hughes tells her that they do care for her and trust her. If she’s patient with them and is there for them then they’ll open up when it’s important. (And it’s really nice that he just invited her to his beloved daughter’s birthday party. Hughes is awesome. Yes, it’s here to make you sadder in a couple episodes.)

So, Winry returns to Ed and she doesn’t push him. Instead she give him a cake from Gracia and they start talking fondly of childhood memories. Al asks to leave the room so he can brood alone and as Winry works on Ed’s arm, he opens up to her about what’s bothering him.

He reveals that he’s scared that Al blames him for not making the stone. (And by extension for Al being stuck in the armoured body at all.) Winry consoles him, that Al wouldn’t want him to take another’s life. She suggests that Ed just offers an apology to him and try to mend things rather than letting things stay this tense. 

Ed seems nervous and conflicted but agrees and offering an apology is the very next thing Ed does.

(It’s also the first time Ed actually stands up this episode.) 

Well, in response, Al also opens up. Hooray! Except, it’s that he thinks he’s a fake and that Ed doesn’t really love him. (Is this what happens when he broods in silence for too long?)

So, Al demands some answers from Ed and he’s struggling on what to say again. Al’s also ignoring Winry and is irrational and angry. While Ed is scared to confess what’s truly, truly been bothering him for years (whether Al blames him for the human transmuation and being stuck in unfeeling armour), he’s trying to show through his actions that he cares.

For his trouble, he gets hit in the face (the second time this episode!) and Al runs away. Eh, well some things can’t be brushed off quickly. Al needs time to deal with his feelings and Ed will properly reveal his worries next episode.

So, yeah, a whole lot of consequences from Lab 5 and lots of opening up from Edward. 03 seems so good when you put Ed at the centre of of everything. I love the way he’s explored here and seeing the various interactions between him and Winry, Maria, Hughes and his brother. It’s also his birthday, reminding us that he's growing up physically and maturing emotionally.


	18. FMA 03: Ed's meeting with Marcoh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, it's another one about Ed's character.

Have I ever mentioned that I really like Ed’s character? It’s great how he develops because early on he can be really selfish and only concerned with his own goals. See the Marcoh encounter:

  


So Marcoh opens up to the two brothers about the Philosopher’s stone and how it was used in Ishval. He emphasises that it was a massacre that he feels responsible for.

Ed’s response?

He’s not interested in hearing about Marcoh’s guilt or the war or anything. He’s just after the stone. (Also Marcoh deserted the military, Ed. He doesn’t care about your cool title.) At least Al’s being more sympathetic, giving some encouraging news about the situation in Xenotime.

Ed meanwhile, breaks down a wall and finds the incomplete Philosopher’s stone. Basque Grand then comes in and confirms that the stone was used in Ishval to augment their abilities, allowing them to cause far greater destruction. That's some really devastating news.

How does Ed react? 

…That’s one of his stranger expressions. A still picture doesn’t really do it justice as you can’t see how his eyes are twinkling as he stares at the incomplete Philosopher's stone. Ed’s very excited to be getting some answers and he’s ignoring all the warning signs. This is the biggest break he’s had in almost 4 years of searching for the stone and he doesn't care about some war because it's not anything to do with him; he’s only here for the stone and they’re finally getting closer to it.

It’s pretty Ironic that instead of a flashback of Ishval while Marcoh’s talking, we instead get shots of the destruction in Liore – something that’s very much to do with Edward, though he is currently unaware of the fact. Ed doesn't realise that his actions might have unforeseen effects.

A moment later, he does finally show some anger in this scene.

…But it’s because of Grand denying him access to Marcoh’s research about the stone. (Because no one cares about Ed’s cool State Alchemist title.) 

Then Grand sends in soldiers to arrest Dr. Marcoh and it’s finally apparent to him that Ed’s actions have unwittingly caused him harm – his actions do have consequences outside himself. By going here, he’s tipped the military off about Marcoh’s location. 

And Ed finally starts showing some guilt and empathy here. This time, he’s angry at himself. We even get a flashback to Nina and Ed’s inability to save her from the military’s clutches. He’s afraid he’s making another mistake - allowing evil to occur right in front of him.

  


So Ed runs after the car, trying to make things right. 

Exactly how far he would’ve gone to save Dr. Marcoh we sadly don’t find out as that’s when Scar appears and suddenly they all have a different problem. 


	19. FMA 03: Episode 17, some thoughts on themes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> House of the waiting family is one I always enjoy because I'm a sucker for nice breathers with lots of character interaction.

This is a lovely and peaceful episode where Ed and Al go back to Risembool to get repaired before things heat up again when they leave for central. Though it’s a breather, there’s a surprisingly high amount of development in it. It’s got themes of home, family and memories in it.

At the start of the episode, Ed says he’s never been back because they have no home here anymore. They burned it down.

Winry and Pinako are friendly and welcoming throughout the episode, going out of their way to help them. Still, Winry gets angry and frustrated that the brothers can’t seem to get how much they care about them.

Edward is frustrated at his inability to move on from the past, with his watch declaring the date the burned their house down, a constant reminder of his motivations. Winry is frustrated at his approach, struggling to express that their time with them isn’t wasted like Ed believes, because she and Pinako still care about them and there’s more to their life than their tragedy. (Ed has let himself become pretty much defined by his tragedy, having run from his past.) She starts crying about it, claiming that she’s crying because neither of them will and hates how they’re avoiding dealing with their feelings.

Al’s struggling with his memories and sense of self in this episode, being back in Risembool seems to be uncomfortable for him, especially given he is completely immobile for most of it. Ed nearly reveals his worries to him (about whether he blames Ed for everything) but loses his nerve. By avoiding dealing with this now, it’ll become the greater identity crisis later that isn’t resolved until Ed does open up to him. It’s great how Winry is able to see these issues even when she hasn’t seen them in so long. She recognises that they need to try and deal with their feelings, not avoid them. Avoiding coming back to Risembool for so long is of course another symptom of their refusal to deal with their feelings. 

During the episode Ed visit’s his mother’s grave, showing some acceptance over her death, reluctant (scared) as he is to visit initially. At the end, they visit the ruins of their house, and remember their past fondly. And in the past Trisha had lit a lantern to remind them to come home. In the present, WInry’s holding a lantern, waiting for them. It's a simple reminder that they have a family here, even if they try to deny and that Winry is prepared to wait for them to be ready.

By the end, Ed says that he does consider this place home and he’ll come back soon. Winry is pleased. The visuals are beautiful and sunny, though Winry mentions Ed’s watch again, a reminder of unhappy memories and broken homes.


	20. FMA 03: Episode 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that these chapter are in such a random order but here's my thoughts on Ed (all these posts are secretly about Ed) in episode 8 - the barry the chopper one.

Ed can act pretty emotional and irrationally sometimes. It's one of the things I love in this series and it's especially present when he's only 12 and when he's struggling to deal with Nina's death. Yeah, episode 8 is a gem.

So it’s the episode after Nina died and Ed is really distraught about it. And Ed encounters a serial killer! Interestingly, 03 decides to follow the Nina incident with Ed getting into a fight and almost getting killed just like the Manga but decides to hold back on the Scar fight. Events are shuffled around quite a bit really, but plenty of similarities remain.

But one big difference is that Ed wasn’t looking for the Scar fight, he was feeling sad and depressed about what’s just happened and then he’s attacked pretty much out of the blue.

In 03 however?

  
Ed decides to leave the military (which he just joined) and hunt down the serial killer. It's a much more active approach.

You can see why. He’s feeling helpless and wants to do something about it. He’s informed that Tucker’s been executed already and he can’t bring Nina back. The only other option open to him is to find who killed her and find some sort of justice for what happened. He needs some sort of obsession to focus on.

And the military is cold and uncaring. They want him to get to work. (And someone has a seriously sick sense of humour in ordering him to go through Tucker’s research.) Mustang is unsympathetic. Even Al just wants to move past the tragedy but Ed just cannot. 

  
But Ed’s also acting completely irrationally. He heard about a serial killer in Central a little while ago and decides that it must be him behind Nina’s death. Even though it’s so obviously not. This guy goes after young women and likes to slash them up. The cause of death is completely different. But Ed’s basically clinging to whatever cause he can find. 

Al’s trying to be reasonable. He’s like: “We don’t catch criminals, we’re alchemists, we do research. Maybe we can find a way to prevent another Nina from happening.” And Ed literally runs away. So he’s run away not just from the Military but from Al as well. So, Al gets on with research while Ed pursues his pointless mission. 

Ironically enough, Ed actually does run into the culprit by sheer coincidence.

  
And he has no idea that it’s him and they wander away with no confrontation at all. (Aww, Ed’s so little.) Is he smiling? He hardly smiles at all this episode…

Well Ed still can’t do much alone so he goes to the one person who will help him out: Hughes. He’s kind enough to share his case files with Ed and give him a chance to focus on trying to solve this case. Ed’s still kind of snappish with Hughes and practically blows up when he suggests maybe an alchemist was behind the killings. Ed takes it very personally.

  
(Sorry Ed, but most alchemists are indeed killers.)

Well, Ed finally gets the fight he’s been after and it’s nothing like he imagined. It’s not him defeating the bad guy – instead his friend is in danger and Ed’s nearly rendered helpless. 

  
When Al appears, Ed so relieved. He now talks about his feelings, how he felt extremely scared and vulnerable. And he’s crying even as Al comforts him and suggests a new goal in the form of the Philosopher’s Stone. 

Is he starting to be more rational as he works through his feelings, or is it just something new to cling to to stop him from feeling so helpless? Earlier in the episode he dismissed the stone as just a fairytale and only listens now when Al’s just saved him. He's at his lowest and Al gives him something new to believe in even as his faith in other people has been battered.


	21. FMA 03: All is one one is all - episode analysis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, this episode is already so good at getting its message across that I don't feel like I did much more than summarise it so this isn't my best meta of all time. But this episode was seriously great.

This is another episode that explores the Elrics backstory. So yeah, more talking about Ed and Al’s characters. It’s a pretty brutal experience, honestly, and demonstrates that Izumi is a wise teacher (but would probably make a terrible mother given these harsh methods.)

  
Whatever the case, the Elrics are left alone on an uninhabited island. They have to work out what Teacher means by “One is all, all is one.” She means for them to learn about the flow of life.

At first, Ed and Al pretty arrogant and energetic, determined to beat this puzzle and overcome the challenge. But over the course of the episode we see their focus narrow to just trying to survive. They soon no longer care about winning. All their lofty goals are irrelevant to their present situation.

They’re instead learning to do what is necessary to survive.

Early on, they catch a rabbit in a trap. But then they realise they have to kill it to eat it and neither of them have the nerve to do so despite their growing hunger. Then a fox steals their rabbit to feed its young. It gives Ed an awful bite. Ed’s furious but then his expression softens as he realises that the fox mother is caring for its two children.

  


Meanwhile, they’ve also got to contend with the masked man. It’s Mason in disguise but they don’t know that. He repeatedly attacks them, steals their food and make survival generally harder. They learn to tread carefully and stay alert.

And after about two weeks they’re questioning what they’re even doing here. They barely remember that there’s a greater reason for being here. They’re eating anything they can find, including rats, snakes and poisonous mushrooms.

Ed seems to become particularly depressed. Al is frustrated and desperate as well of course, but he’s always just a touch more optimistic. Though he does at one point confess how much he just wants to go back home. And in that moment where Ed asks why they’re here, Al doesn’t have an answer either. So Al’s not doing all that much better.

But Ed’s state of mind is a bit worse. See this, where Ed’s grimly thinking about death with really deadened eyes:

This is all leading up to this moment where the two of them are fighting the masked man. Ed takes a blow to the stomach and lies on the ground. His brother is still fighting and can be heard taking hits and Ed doesn’t even move out of concern for him – it’s like he’s given up. His eyes have this dead look to them.

That’s when Ed sees this dead cicada and even tinier microorganisms harvesting the little insect’s corpse. That when he comes to the realisation that it’s death is enabling other things to live, that life works in this flow. The natural flow of the world is this cycle of life and death. And he applies this idea to himself and his own situation.

(There’s also this very brief image of his mother appearing once more in his thoughts.) 

With newfound determination, Ed picks up his knife and faces the masked man. The message is clear: he’s willing to fight with lethal force to protect his brother. With that, the masked man simply drops Alphonse and finally leaves them alone. He doesn’t bother them again. (And Ed finally gives a brief relieved smile.)

So Ed’s starting to get what Izumi meant by All is one, one is all. With this understanding comes a greater appreciation for the value of life and a understanding of the world as a whole.

As he explains his thoughts to Al, there’s loads of beautiful imagery of wildlife. Actually, this whole episode has lots of nice visuals, I think. Ed talks about death again, this time far less depressed about it. He says that in their subjective mindset, people will be sad and they won’t have achieved anything but looking at their lives as part of a bigger picture, the world would just keep on going as if nothing had happened while their bodies would decompose into their base elements. (Al lists the elements that make up a human body here.) 

They realise that they’re only tiny individuals in a greater world where their elements that make them up will keep on circulating through the system long after they’re dead. But without all the individual parts that make it up, the ‘All’ couldn’t exist.

This time, when faced with a rabbit, Ed’s able to kill it. (Foreshadowing how Ed could be pushed to taking a life as the Greed arc is coming up).

And they link it to alchemy. Alchemists like them work by recognising that flow of the world and working within it – to understand, decompose and recreate. 

And that pretty much concludes the flashback portion of this episode. Izumi’s impressed with what they’ve learned and agrees to teach them.

In the present, Ed confesses that while they’d learned that much, they hadn’t accepted that life can only flow in one direction. That death is irreversible. They understand it better now as he says how it was a mistake to try and bring their mum back. Coming back here was to give them a chance to reflect on that. 

Despite confessing that much, they both stay firm in their choice to continue seeking a way to fix themselves even it means potentially making the same mistakes. This time, they’re far more aware of the costs and dangers.

The storytelling in this episode is pretty nice. It does a bunch of cuts between the past and the present which isn’t something I want all the time but it works here. Seeing how capable the Elric brother are shows how much they’ve grown and changed from when they were kids. It also prevents the episode from being too dark as you get to see the two of them laughing and fondly reminiscing about their terrifying experience on the island as kids. 

(This is also the episode which introduces Wrath. He’s observing them as they wander about. Al even somehow mistakes him for Ed at one point. He doesn’t reveal himself until the end, giving a great hook for the next episode.)

So yeah, all in all, one of my favourite episodes. Just wanted to talk mostly about the development of young Ed and Al throughout this episode though I feel like I just ended up summarising the story. Oh well.


	22. FMA 03: Lust, Reunion of the fallen analysis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I love character driven episodes. Okay, I always love them.

FMA 03: Episode 35

In FMA, the homunculi are named after the seven deadly sins. However, the homunculus Lust never really displays any lustful behaviour. That’s fine of course – she does display many strong non-sexual desires. Her character is all about a search for her own identity, reclaiming the humanity that she’s lost.

That said, another way to embody the sin is in how she can invoke feelings of lust in others. Her character design as a dark beauty reflects this. 

So there’s this episode where she encounters a young man and he falls in love with her. It’s a tragic story because she seems quite unaware of his growing feelings for her and she never intends to hurt him. I love this episode and how it clearly demonstrates her inhumanity, her heartless cruelty that has been prominent up until now in the series, but now its juxtaposed with her own dissatisfaction, her longing for answers and her (so far) unspoken wish of regaining her humanity. 

When Lust walks into his life, the young man, Lujon, is already engaged to be married to a nice girl who desperately cares for him. But he quickly grows close to Lust. His fiancé, Lydia, is growing sick and she’s aware she’s losing Lujon just as she’s aware she’s losing her life.

She even confronts Lust about it, though coughing and crippled she nevertheless begs Lust to let her have Lujon. Lust is entirely unaffected. I like the contrast between the two – Lydia is this sweet girl who feels helpless against this exotic beauty. 

  


On the day Lydia and Lujon are going to be married, Lujon goes into the woods to see Lust instead. That’s when he attempts to confess his feelings, hugging Lust tightly. (Again you can contrast Lydia in her white dress and white veil – a white wedding dress traditionally indicates purity – with lust in her black.) 

I think this is a seemingly very classical example of the sin of Lust. Lust herself isn’t even aware of the turmoil she’s causing but her mere presence has caused these two great pain, leading to heartbreak and separation. Without her in the picture, the two of them would have been happily married. 

And yet, it’s not so simple because Lust is presented in this episode to both be very knowledgeable and yet very naive. She’s shown to know a lot of alchemy and she and Envy are scheming; using this village and this illness they manufactured for their own goals. Yet she also seems unaware that Lujon has fallen for her. Lydia is fully aware of it, hence her earlier confrontation but Lust didn’t seem to get it and when Lujon hugs her, she’s completely surprised and caught off-guard. These feelings are all new to her.

As Lujon hugs her, faded memories of being held like this suddenly resurface. In this scenario, she is the sickly, dying girl while her love is a man considering forbidden alchemy to save her. 

That’s the thing with Lust, she appears to be this perfect immortal creature, the dark destructive beauty bringing ruin. Ed even questions her about it later:

But, at her core, she’s more like the sickly dying girl who wants to be truly alive (or is ready to accept death?). Up until this point in the series, Lust has appeared plenty and she’s always been ruthless, cruel and a bit mysterious. This episode show’s more of that, as she and Envy show no remorse at the awful disease they spread and the many lives they’re ruining. But it also shows her wanting to be human. She’s very thoughtful but scared of her feelings as they confuse her.

So after Lujon hugs her, Lust runs away. Two years later, Lydia has come to terms with the way things are. She confesses that as much as she loved Lujon, there was someone else he loved more. But Lust is still feeling lost. 

She is still looking for answers. This episode immediately follows Greed’s demise and her own mortality weighs heavily on her. Upon meeting Lujon again, he is happy to see her. He was sad that she disappeared and regrets that things ended the way they did but confesses that he’s been hoping to find her again.

So, Lujon embraces her again, making his feelings clear. She is startled by the memories once more and still doesn’t know how to deal with them. So she tries to run once more. This time though, she stabs him through the heart and he dies. A dying Lydia stumbles upon his corpse and it seems they are at least together in death. 

Lust is left feeling only bereft as she leaves with Envy. It’s a cruel irony that she has been looking so hard for answers only to be scared once she starts to find them. Not unlike Ed and Al’s own hopeless quest in that regard. She killed Lujon but it doesn’t end the inner turmoil. Her search for answers continues


	23. FMA 03: Wrath and Envy's first meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From episode 31, Sin. This is part of a series of posts made for fma 03 month. I probably won't post all of them on here, but this is my favourite.

Hey there, I've always this scene to be great but it seems like it's something of an underrated gem.   


**Envy and Wrath’s first meeting.**

(Wrath does not yet have his name at this point in the series, but I’ll still refer to him as such for clarity).

In southern HQ, a range of different groups are all after the same thing: this strange new homunculus kid. Ed and Al want to interrogate him and find out more about how he acquired Ed’s missing limbs, Izumi wants to take care of the boy she believes is her son, Archer wants to use Wrath to advance his military career, Greed wants to use Wrath as an ally against Dante and the other homunculi but it’s Envy who wins the kid over. 

The reason Envy wants Wrath is because he’s a homunculus, like him. I suppose you could suggest he wants to use Wrath for his powers so Dante has another willing minion (and I believe that’s certainly a significant factor) but truthfully I’ve always preferred a different interpretation. That Envy genuinely wants to help the kid because he feels a sort of kinship with him. 

The homunculi are already in a position of power, we see them dealing with Greed without too much trouble and Wrath is honestly a burden to their group with how emotional and unreliable he ends up being. Dante doesn’t take all that long to become impatient with him and rip off his human limbs, rendering him practically useless. They can’t know what Wrath will be like, but he’s nevertheless a real spanner in the works they really didn’t need. And Envy freely offers him some red stones, despite their value. Beyond that though, the homunculi are a group who have all experienced abandonment from their creators and Wrath is practically screaming for attention. It's so easy for them to emphasise with him.

But I digress. This episode is known as Sin and this scene is quite a dark one. We see Envy’s confident yet patient smile as he talks down to the lost boy, feeding him information he’s been lacking as he offers him a sort of forbidden fruit. Envy is very much like a snake, isn’t he? Well if he's the serpent then Wrath is being offered the knowledge of good and evil. Wrath reluctantly takes them and finds they taste good. As Envy reveals their cursed properties - that they’re made of human lives, he spits them out, knowing they must be Wrong. 

But as Envy begins to withdraw the offer, Wrath becomes desperate and strikes out. 

Even Envy seems a bit surprised, though he’s quickly back to smirking as Wrath grimly eats them:

He calmly tells Wrath that he (Envy) is not human; he is a homunculus and reveals to Wrath that he’s the same (and for the first time in this scene, Wrath’s Ouroboros can be seen while Envy’s has been prominently visible for the entire scene. We also get a close up shot of Envy’s face with his slitted purple eyes. I adore the atmosphere and lighting and cinematography of this scene.)

Wrath collapses and he starts to go through some sort of transformation; we see his eyes changing shape and memories of the Gateway resurfacing in his mind. He starting to remember who and what he is. And then the scene shifts. 

I’ll touch on the next part as well. It really completes it.

Izumi is leaning against the wall, exhausted from fighting but still looking for her child. Last she saw, he was taken by the Fuhrer. Suddenly, Wrath runs out of the room and immediately clings to Izumi, though we don’t get to see his face. What soon becomes apparent is how his clothes have changed as well - now they bear a large resemblance to Envy’s outfit.

Izumi ever so cautiously hugs him before picking him up - noting the changes and looking saddened and thoughtful. Then she looks into the room Wrath’s emerged from.

Izumi flees, gripping Wrath tightly.


End file.
